Moscow Pride banned for 10th year running

Moscow has again banned organisers from holding a Pride parade in the city, marking a decade of oppression against the LGBT community.

On Thursday, activist Nikolai Alexeyev wrote on Instagram: “I have just been informed that the Moscow authorities have banned a gay Pride parade for the 10th consecutive year!”

He said that he’ll appeal the decision in the courts, but that some kind of Pride activity will be held, even it is illegal.

Alexeyev added that he will also submit the repeated bannings to the Guinness Book of Records.

The event had been planned to take place on 30 May. Moscow mayoral representative Alexey Mayorov told RIA Novosti: “We have warned the organisers that the demonstration will not be authorised.”

Despite the previous bans, activists have repeatedly defied the authorities over the years by holding smaller illegal protests around the city; braving arrest and attacks by anti-gay thugs.

Moscow has ignored a 2010 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that the Pride bans are discriminatory and a violation of the right to free assembly.

In 2013, President Putin signed a federal law banning gay “propaganda” to “protect” children, which has been used to restrict press freedom and music concerts, to ban gay Pride events and protests and led to an increase in violence and discrimination against LGBT people.