Neo-Nazi gangs attack Moscow gay pride marchers
Author: Jonty Skrufff
Friday, June 2, 2006
Russian cops stood by as skinhead gangs and religious zealots punched and terrorised activists attending last weekend’s banned gay pride march in Moscow, according to press reports this week.
UK activist Peter Tatchell said numerous gangs of thugs marauded through the streets attacking people they suspected as gay including German Green MP Volker Beck who was left bleeding in the face after being assaulted.
"It was a stone and a fist,” Herr Beck told German TV, “The security forces did not protect us but instead prevented us from retreating. We were left without any protection."
Numerous Western politicians including Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe and London Mayor Ken Livingstone condemned the violence, with Mayor Livingstone invoking the Nazis murderous campaigns against gays during the Second World War.
"To see open fascists and Nazis parading in Moscow, and assaulting gay and lesbian people, is to trample on the memory of all those who fought against Nazism,” he said, “And particularly the 27 million Soviet citizens who died in the fight against fascism.”
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