RUSSIA: Gay Activist To Sue Actor Ivan "Burn Gays Alive" Okhlobystin

A Russian gay activist says he will sue actor and former Orthodox priest Ivan Okhlobystin, who earned international headlines for saying that he'd like to burn all gays alive in ovens. Via Russia's official news agency, RIA Novosti:

Nikolai Bayev said in a post on his Facebook account Wednesday that he did not expect his suit against Ivan Okhlobystin to succeed in Russia, but that he hopes to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights. Bayev seeks 30,000 rubles ($850) in damages, his lawyer Andrey Zaytsev said. Okhlobystin reacted in typically combative fashion on Twitter. “The very existence of the lawsuit offends my religious sentiment,” Okhlobystin wrote. Offending the feelings of believers has since June been made a criminal offense in Russia, punishable by up to three years in prison. Okhlobystin, 47, was embroiled in scandal last month after saying during a chat with fans that he would “put [gays] all alive in the oven… it’s a living danger to my children.” The actor refused to apologize and later petitioned the Kremlin to ban “sodomy.” No response followed. He was sacked as creative director of Yevroset mobile phone retailer over his gay-bashing. But Okhlobystin got a similar job at clothes maker Baon within days.

Bayev said he is also asking local authorities to charge Okhobystin under Russia's "vaguely worded" extremism law, which is usually used against Islamist and far-right nationalists. The above-linked story does not make it clear, but it appears that the lawsuit was filed on the grounds of Russia's law against "offending religious beliefs."

RUSSIA: Actor Ivan "Burn Gays Alive" Okhlobystin Resigns From Phone Retailer

"Given the incessant threats, provocations and insults from the sodomites in respect of my friends, associates and their familes, I have resigned. People close to me do not have to suffer from my public position from which I will never give up. Sodom and Gomorrah must be destroyed!" - Ivan Okhlobystin, announcing his resignation as the creative director for Euroset, Russia's largest cell phone retailer. Euroset and Apple had been the targets of a petition campaign demanding that Ohklobystin be fired after he said he'd like to burn all gay people alive in ovens. Last week he called on the Russian government to criminalize homosexuality, a demand that was immediately endorsed by the Russian Orthodox Church.

Russian Orthodox Church Calls For Referendum To Criminalize Homosexuality

Days after a similar demand from Russian actor Ivan "Burn Gays Alive" Okhlobystin, the Russian Orthodox Church has called for a public referendum to criminalize homosexual acts.

The Church's abrupt intervention came amid a growing debate over whether the Kremlin should mount a firmer defence of traditional values that many in the overwhelmingly conservative country view as coming under attack from Europe and the United States. Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin pointed to polls showing more than half of Russians viewing homosexuality as either an illness or a crime as a sign that the country was ready to revert to a Soviet-era homosexual ban. "There is no question that society should discuss this issue since we live in a democracy," Chaplin told the online edition of the pro-government Izvestia daily. "For this reason, it is precisely the majority of our people and not some outside powers that should decide what should be a criminal offence and what should not," he said.

A member of Vladimir Putin's ruling party told the news agency Interfax that Russia is bound by international treaties that ban outlawing homosexuality.

RUSSIA: Actor Ivan "Burn Gays Alive" Okhlobystin Calls On Vladimir Putin To Criminalize Homosexuality

Russian actor Ivan Okhlobystin, who made international headlines last month when he declared that gays should be burned alive in furnaces, is calling upon Vladimir Putin to criminalize homosexuality. Via Russia's official news agency RIA Novosti:

A controversial sitcom star-cum-priest asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to bring back a Soviet law criminalizing “sodomy.” Not doing so would give “sodomites a constitutional opportunity to defile the young generation,” Ivan Okhlobystin said on his blog on Tuesday. The actor praised Putin for last year’s ban on “gay propaganda,” but said it was not enough because the very existence of a legal gay community amounted to such propaganda. The Kremlin did not comment as of Wednesday. Okhlobystin’s post was deleted from TwitLonger blog platform for violation of terms of service, according to the Twitter of the site’s creator Stuart Gibson, who is openly gay.

Okhlobystin stars in a Russian version of Scrubs titled Interns. More on today's news from the Hollywood Reporter:

In the letter, quoted by the Russian TV station NTV, Okhlobystin complained about the ineffectiveness of the law "against gay propaganda among minors," which was adopted last year, and called for stricter measures. "The existence of officially registered gay communities is direct advertising of homosexuality," reads the letter, in which the actor also suggested that criminal punishment for homosexuality should be reinstated by a national referendum. According to Okhlobystin, urgent steps need to be made to avoid recognition of gay people as "a social group," which, would give them "a constitutional opportunity to corrupt the younger generation."

Sodomy was punishable by up to seven years in prison during the Soviet era, but homosexual acts were decriminalized in 1993 by the DUMA.