Moscow Pride - Moscow Pride 2009 Hosted The First Slavic Pride

Moscow Pride 2009 Hosted The First Slavic Pride

The 2009 edition of Moscow Pride took place on May 16, 2009, the same day as the finale of the 2009 Eurovision Song Contest being hosted by Moscow, and on the eve of the International Day Against Homophobia. The parade was called "Slavic Pride, as it will promote gay rights and culture from across the entire Slavic regions of Europe. A group of 15 Belarusian activist led by Sergey Androsenko, the leader of Gaybelarus. Peter Tatchell and Andy Thayer were the only foreigners to take part in this demonstration, all other participants came from Russia and Belarus. Although Moscow government has had a history of denying requests for authorization of such parades, it was stated that as with previous years, the parade would go on no matter what.

Ultimately, the parade was denied authorization by Moscow officials, but Nikolai Alekseev praised the decision, considering the parade a risk that must be taken, "otherwise the homophobes and authoritarians will win". Moscow officials had issued statements regarding this matter, stating that protesters would be treated "toughly" and would face "tough measures" by the police department. The protest was originally announced as taking place at Novopushkinsky Skver in central Moscow, but organizers changed the location at the last moment to the Vorobyovy Gory viewpoint near Moscow State University, a popular spot for wedding photographs to avoid queer-bashing attacks as in previous years.

The demonstration was under the motto "Gay Equality - No compromise"; postulating the recognitition of same-sex marriage, also see Recognition of same-sex unions in Russia. Protestors were arrested within minutes, while being filmed by television crews, including state-financed Russia Today, among them Nikolai Alekseev and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who exclaimed that "this shows the Russian people are not free" as he was taken away by police. The OMON troops were "needlessly violent", Peter Tatchell said. In violation of Russian law, activists were detained overnight. Belarusian activists were freed about 2 a.m. Nikolai Alekseev was held overnight in prison and was interrogated for hours at a time.

Some EU Embassies (UK, Sweden, Netherlands, Finland) which had been invited by the organizers to monitor the events on the spot, concluded that they did not find any ground to make a diplomatic actions. The activists commented it: "It shows that it is easier to act for the EU Embassies in smaller countries such as Latvia where several EU Embassies brought support but when it turns to be in Russia, things are different."

Samuel Žbogar, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Slovenia and chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, expressed his concern about the action taken against the organisers of the Slavic Gay Pride parade in Moscow at the same night: "According to the established case law of the European Court of Human Rights, peaceful demonstrations cannot be banned simply because of the existence of attitudes hostile to the demonstrators or to the causes they advocate. The fact that this is not the first year such a situation has developed is of concern to the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe", the statement concluded. Nikolai Alekseev had written earlier to the Prime Minister of Slovenia in April 2009 asking him to take the issues with the Russian authorities.