Putin’s crackdown on ‘LGBTQ+ tour company operating under his nose’
A travel agent has been designated a terrorist for ‘leading LGBTQ+ tours’ inside Russia and abroad.
Andrey Kotov, the director of Men Travel, a Russian travel agency allegedly catering to queer clients, was arrested during a mid-night raid of his home.
He has become the latest victim of Vladimir Putin’s decade-long war on the LGBTQ+ community.
The 48-year-old said police administered electric shocks during his arrest, even though he did not resist.
It is alleged that 15 people broke into his home and started beating him on the face and legs, leaving his body covered with bruises.
Footage taken during the midnight raid shows the travel agent breathless and shackled on the floor while being questioned by uniformed officers.
Kotov was forced to say ‘what they wanted,’ even though he said that Men Travel organises ‘ordinary trips’ for tourists.
‘No, that is not right, it is for gays,’ the security forces allegedly said to him.
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He has since been charged with setting up activities of an ‘extremist’ group but has denied them, independent news outlet Mediazona reported.
Kotov is accused of organising an LGBTQ+ boat cruise on the Volga river and preparing a New Year tour to Egypt.
His arrest comes days after police raided multiple nightclubs in Moscow as part of the government’s crackdown on ‘LGBTQ+ propaganda.’
Footage shared on Telegram and VKontakte appeared to show partygoers being ordered by police to lie on the floor as officers moved through Arma nightclub. The capital’s Mono bar was also targeted.
Smartphones, laptops and video cameras were seized, while people had their documents inspected by officers, Russia’s Tass news agency said.
The raids come exactly a year since Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that the ‘LGBTQ+ movement’ should be banned as an ‘extremist organisation.’
Its decision followed a decades-long crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights in the country, where Putin has touted ‘traditional family values’ as a cornerstone of his quarter-century in power.
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