■ Nikolai Alekseev:  Facing slander charge following ‘outing’ of politician.

MOSCOW, August 2, 2007  –  Nikolai Alekseev, the principal organiser of Moscow Pride, could be charged with slander following comments made on live television, it emerged this morning as ‘intrigue’ expanded to link the Gay Pride with exiled Russian billionaire Boris Berezovski.

Mr. Alekseev said that the police had officially told him by telephone yesterday that he his being investigated following claims from Alexander Chuev, deputy of Russian State Duma.  He also strongly denied local media reports that Mr. Berezovski had offered to bankroll Moscow and other Gay Prides to the tune of 100 million US dollars.

Mr. Chuev, of the ‘Fair Russia’ party which has close links with the Kremlin, claims that he was insulted and slandered when he was described as “gay” by Mr. Alekseev when the two appeared on NTV’s “K baryeru!” talk show in June.  The programme is Russia’s most popular ‘chat show’.

The TV duel between the deputy and Moscow Pride organiser was broadcast live on June 21 in the Russian Far East and in all other parts of Russia as an ‘as live’ recording a few hours later.

Mr. Alekseev made first “outing” of a gay politician in Russia’s history.  Mr. Chuev is known for his anti gay statements and anti-gay legislative initiatives.  He was the author of the bill to forbid ‘propaganda’ of homosexuality and supported re-criminalisation of male homosexual relations.

It is expected that Mr. Alekseev will be called for interrogation by the detective in the coming days.

According to Russian Criminal Code, slandering means dissemination of lies which spoils someone’s reputation or dignity.

“[The] Russian authorities were caught in their own trap by opening this criminal file,” Mr. Alekseev told UK Gay News by email today.

“On the one hand they are saying all the time that no one is discriminating gays in Russia and that there is no problem being gay and on the other hand they are investigating whether the word “gay” can be insulting – obviously not, because homosexual relations are not anymore prosecuted in Russia and homosexuality is not classified as a mental illness”.

Mr.  Alekseev pointed out that “no criminal prosecutions are open in Russia for beating people on the streets what we saw during the gay prides this year and last year but authorities are very quick to prosecute people for what they say”.

The Moscow Gay Pride organiser is convinced that “criminal investigation against him was planned as a way of political pressure” for the legal action against Russian authorities both in Russia and in the European Court of Human Rights.

“It is clearly another example of Russia becoming an authoritarian state where people do not have any right to express themselves and speak freely,” he said.  “And Russian authorities do not particularly like those who reveal bitter truth about them.”

In the last few days, there have also been attempts to link gay pride marches to the Russian tycoon and ‘oligarch’, Boris Berezovski, who lives in exile in London.

There were reports in Russian media this week that he was planning to give 100 million dollars to finance gay pride matches in Moscow region towns before the forthcoming parliamentary elections due in early December.

Mr. Alekseev dismissed the claims as “lies and another product of Russian propaganda probably linked to Mr. Chuev himself as he said during the talk show with Mr. Alekseev that he was probably financed by Berezovski”.

■  Nikolai Alekseev was the principal organiser of Moscow Gay Prides in May 2006 and in May 2007.  He has two cases against Russia pending in the European Court in Strasbourg, one concerning Gay Pride ban in 2006 and another concerning his dismissal from postgraduate program of Lomonosov Moscow State University for his homosexuality and scientific research in the rights of sexual minorities.