Prominent LGBT rights activist Nikolai Alexeyev has been fined $375 for organizing an unsanctioned gay parade in the center of Moscow, a report said Monday.
Alexeyev, 37, was handed the 20,000 ruble fine ($373) by the Tverskoi District Court, which found him guilty of organizing an LGBT parade in the Russian capital on May 30 without the consent of the authorities, the Gay Russia news site reported.
Two days after the parade, the Tverskoi District Court handed down a 10-day jail sentence to Alexeyev for disobeying police orders. Activists Vadim Gruzdev and Yevgeny Gerasimov, who joined Alexeyev at the parade along Tverskaya Ulitsa, were jailed for similar offenses, Gay Russia reported.
Russian lawmakers passed a law in 2012 banning the promotion of gay propaganda to minors. That same year, Moscow authorities enacted a 100-year ban on gay parades — a decision that was later upheld by the city's top court, the BBC reported.
