Nikolai Alekseev. Image via YouTube
AFTER Ryazan in 2006 and Arkhangelsk, this autumn the regional parliament of St Petersburg passed a law banning “propaganda of homosexuality, transsexuality and paedophilia” at the Bill’s first reading in mid-November.
This was the first step towards St Petersburg entering the Hall of Shame of the Russian regions which limit a fundamental human right of an individual, the right to freedom of expression.
Introduced by Vladimir Putin’s “United Russia” Party, the Bill had already passed the Parliament’s Legislative Committee, and there is now little chance that anything can stop it. Of course, this bullet against LGBT people is motivated by electoral consideration and must be appreciated in the context of next December’s Parliamentary elections in the country.