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Anti-Gay Lawmaker Breaks Up Halloween Party in St. Petersburg

Fire jugglers performing at the party on Thursday night, which also included acrobatic performances and the launching of halloween-decorated sky lanterns. Ksenia Baluleva

Lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, known as the co-author of the St. Petersburg's anti-gay legislation, has disrupted a Halloween party in one of the city's parks.

United Russia deputy Milonov arrived at Internationalists Park on Thursday in the Kupchino district where about 1,000 people were celebrating Halloween with pumpkin carving contest and a fireworks display, Komsomolskaya Pravda reported Friday.

Milonov and a few of his supporters showed up shortly after the audience had jokingly summoned the devil and called a halt to the "sabbath." He called the police and the organizers were subsequently forced to stop the event "due to technical reasons."

Milonov said that celebrating Halloween in the vicinity of a nearby church and a memorial to soldiers who died in Afghanistan was a slap in the face for all St. Petersburg residents and promised to find and punish the organizers, Fontanka.ru reported.

"We have managed to stop the sabbath. The forces are unequal. We are defending the cross," Milonov wrote in his blog.

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