■ Rebel Russian Orthodox archbishiop Alexiy Skrypnikov-Dardaki.  He has joined the Moscow Gay Pride organising committee. photo courtesy GayRussia.ru

MOSCOW, January 25, 2008 (GayRussia.ru)  –  The organising committee of Moscow Gay Pride officially revealed their plans yesterday, and confirmed that the event will take place on May 30 and 31.

It will be the third Pride in the Russian capital.

A march in central Moscow, in support of tolerance and respect for the rights and freedoms of homosexual people in Russia, is set for Saturday May 31.

Plans to stage marches in the previous two Gay Prides have been scuppered by Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.  Internal sources of the Interfax news agency within Moscow City Hall are hinting that the mayor is unlikely to change his opinion of the Gay Pride – and will again ban it.

The march will act as a finale to the two-day event, which will feature a international human rights conference, with Russian and foreign politicians and activists participating.

“Each year, our movement is getting bigger, and not only in terms of organizers but also in terms of participants,” said Moscow Pride president Nikolai Alekseev, who last weekend received a “hero” awards in Los Angeles during the International Mr. Gay finals for his attempts to stage full Prides.  He was arrested during both previous Prides.

“When Moscow Pride was started there were only three of us, second Pride was organised by seven people – while this year the organising committee has been increased to ten.  It is a diverse group of men and women, homosexual and heterosexual.”

In addition to Mr. Alekseev, the committee is made up of: the leader of Russia’s lesbian movement Evgeniya Debryanskaya; GayRussia.Ru activist Nikolai Baev, coordinators of LGBT Rights movement Alexey Davydov and Irina Fet: deputy of Bashkortostan Parliament Edward Murzin; Transnational radical party activist Nikolai Khramov; coordinator of the Free Radicals movement Sergei Konstantinov; gay activist and publisher Vlad Ortanov: and rebel Russian Orthodox archbishiop Alexiy Skrypnikov-Dardaki.

Mr. Alekseev said that “notification concerning the march will be sent to Moscow Mayor in accordance with Russian legislation two weeks before the event.

“The authorities have no legal basis for banning the event,” he continued.  “That is why, even if they ban it again, we will still go on the streets to realise our constitutional right to freedom of assembly.”

He said that the paperwork for the application to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg over last year’s ban of the Gay Pride march should be completed in early Feburary for delivery to the court.

The matter of the ban on the first march, on May 27, 2006, is already in Strasbourg and is awating consideration.

Previously, the Moscow authorities have rejected requests to stage marches on on the grounds that it would interfere with the rights and routines of ordinary Muscovites.

Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has branded gay pride parades as “Satanic” and vowed that they would never be permitted in the capital while he was in office.

The Russian Orthodox Church and a number of far-right groups have sworn to halt any attempt to hold any march in support of gay rights in Russia.

Last year, Moscow’s Tverskoi District Court ruled that a city ban on holding a Gay Pride Parade was legal.  Around 100 protestors subsequently gathered outside City Hall to submit a petition to the mayor against what they called an “unfounded and illegal prohibition on holding the march in support of sexual minorities in Russia.”

The protest turned violent when British gay rights activist Peter Tatchell was kicked and beaten by extremists.  Police detained 31 people, including two Italian members of the European parliament, in the ensuing melée as both still images and TV footage flashed round the world.

The hostile crowd at last year’s demonstration against Gay Pride included people carrying crosses and wearing Orthodox Church dress, along with ultra-nationalists.

■  Russia is a member of the Council of Europe, and a signatory to the European Convention of Human Rights, which obliges the state to allow demonstrations to be held.

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Posted: 25 January 2008 at 16:30 (UK time)