■ Moscow's homophobic Mayor, Yuri Luzhkov.  Activists demand for EU travel ban.

MOSCOW, June 25, 2007 (GayRussia.ru)  –  City authorities have given official blessing to a demonstration by human rights activists outside the European Commission’s office in Moscow on Wednesday.  The demonstration will call for an EU-wide travel ban on the Mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov.

Gay activists are joining forces with other human rights groups to make the demand following the banning of Moscow Gay Pride last month by Mayor Luzhkov and the ugly scenes outside City Hall when a small group tried to hand-in a letter signed by almost 50 Euro-MPs protesting the ban.

The aim of the demonstration is to “attract attention of the official representatives of the European Union as well as Europeans to the breaches of human rights by Moscow Mayor as well as to ask the EU authorities to introduce travel ban for Moscow Mayor to enter EU countries,” a joint statement by the organisers says.

Behind the demonstration is the LGBT Human Rights group Project GayRussia.Ru, the LGBT Rights group, together with Russian Radicals and Free Radials groups.

Mayor Luzhkov, who has been in office since 1992 and who is going to be reappointed – ironically – on Wednesday by the Duma for a fifth term in office, is known for his breaches of the rights of citizens for freedom of expression and conduct of peaceful public events.

Earlier this year he described Gay Pride parades as “satanic”.

Members of the European Parliament who were in Moscow at the end of May to take part in the city’s second Gay Pride, raised the matter of a possible travel ban for Mayor. Luzhkov in EU countries in the same way as is a travel ban on Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, and members of his government, for human rights violations.

Organiser of Moscow Gay Pride Nikolai Alekseev said that

“Europe is not the place for such people as Moscow Mayor,” commented Nikolai Alekseev, the organiser of Moscow Pride.

“He has many economic interests in Europe and at the same time criticizes European countries as a threat to Russia.

“It is time that Europe shows to Mr. Luzhkov that it is not a place for hypocrites and those who breach fundamental human rights.”

■  UK Gay News addition:  Mayor Luzhkov is married to Yelena Baturina, who is said to be the richest woman in Russia.

Shortly after they married in 1991, Ms. Baturina, a former factory worker, founded the Inteco company which produced furniture and crockery and then diversified into pre-fabricated housing construction and construction materials.  A year later, Luzhkov became Mayor of Moscow and Inteco’s fortunes took-off in the Moscow contruction boom, giving rise to considerable speculation of corruption.

Earlier this year, Forbes magazine, reported the net worth of Ms. Baturina as $3.1 billion, ranking her 279^th in their list of the world’s billionaires.

She is said to have major investments in Gazprom and Sberbank and is now concentrating in the construction side of the business on upscale housing and office development.

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