Moscow Times Names President Obama A Hero Of Russian LGBT Rights Movement

The Moscow Times today named President Obama as one of the top five heroes of Russia's LGBT rights movement.  

American authorities have long raised questions about human rights and LGBT issues in Russia, and Obama sent a clear signal during his visit to St. Petersburg for the G20 summit, where he organized a meeting with human rights and LGBT activists amid a busy schedule and ongoing negotiations regarding the conflict in Syria. The meeting was attended by investigative journalist Yelena Milashina, lawyer Ivan Pavlov of human rights organization Memorial, and human rights activist Boris Pynstintsev, among others. Originally scheduled for 40 minutes, his meting eventually lasted for 90 minutes, reported Pink News.

Topping the newpaper's list of five is Russian activist Nikolai Alexeyev, whose increasingly bizarre behavior has recently brought denouncements from many US-based and foreign LGBT activists.

NOTE: The Moscow Times, unlike many Russian media sources, is not state-owned. The paper is owned by a Finland-based corporation and is not sold on Moscow's newsstands.

Moscow Times On Anti-Gay Vigilantes

The Moscow Times has finally noticed the anti-gay vigilante groups whose videos have have been in the news elsewhere for months.  One of the groups they single out entraps teenage gay boys looking to hook up with older men and calls themselves Occupy Gerontophilia. (Gerontophilia means to have a sexual preference for the elderly.)

At least one official has drawn attention to the potential harm being done by the Occupy Gerontophilia group. Federation Council Senator Konstantin Dobrynin appealed to Investigative Committee head Alexander Bastrykin and Prosecutor General Yury Chaika over the matter earlier this month, saying a probe should be opened to determine whether the group's leader and members could be held criminally liable for "coercion to perform acts of a sexual nature." The charge carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison.

Social networking site Vkontakte has also been responsive to the increasing public outcry over the group's activities, blocking its official page. And the group's branch in Lipetsk recently attracted the attention of police, who last Thursday announced that they were looking into a video of a 17-year-old being taunted after agreeing to meet with a 22-year-old man.

But critics are wondering why it has taken authorities so long to respond, considering the group has been operating for nearly a year. Some say the belated response suggests that the official reaction isn't sincere. "It's pure PR," former Pussy Riot lawyer Mark Feigin said by phone. "The fact that the perpetrators are minors makes it very difficult to prosecute them." Feigin added that the criminal charge Dobrynin called for would likely not hold up in court.

Read the full story.