A thrilling detective story with kidnapping of Nikolay Alekseev - the organizer of gay prides in Moscow finished yesterday with a happy end. A 33 year old gay leader who planned to leave Moscow for Switzerland vanished from the sight of his friends on September 15th after checking through passport and customs controls at Domodedovo airport for his evening flight. In his blog Nikolay tells that he all this time was being detained in Kashira (a town in Moscow region) in a room that looked like torture cell and he was stalled there by the local police (automatic translation >>). Later he was taken to Tula and from there he came back to the capital after two days. Unidentified officials had been pressing him to sign a paper saying that "he cancels his complaints to the European Court of Justice on the grounds of mutual amicable agreement".

For reference: Recently Nikolay Alekseev has filed many suits to the ECJ against Moscow government's decisions to ban gay pride in the capital of Russia and others.

That paper had information only about suits against bans of gay prides in Moscow since 2005. "I refused to sign anything despite a firm advice not to go into conflict with the authorities. At that time I wished that not only I had filed such a suit  but many", blogs Nikolay. "Kidnappers also demanded to cancel a picket "Mayor is a fag", planned on September 21st.

Nikolay was left free of use of physical force against him at the police unit. He had some suspicions about the drinking water because "for two days it was hard for him to concentrate. It was not just a coincidence", stresses the kidnapped.

The authorities keep silence and do not comment on this story. RIA "Novosti" earlier informed (automatic translation >>) that Domodedovo airport press-service had said that the main cause for his discharge from the flight was his refusal to take off his shoes for security control. Itar-Tass news agency citing the Ministry of the Interior press-centre's statement said that "the information on Mr. Alekseev's detention at the Domodedovo airport by the officials from the Russian transport police was not true".

The Russian GLBT community has responded differently on this story. The poll by LGBT movement "Antidogma" (effective on the date of September 20th, 2010) shows that the opinion has divided: 44% believe that it was a PR-action to attract attention to himself, 30% think it was a gay hatred action against GLBT leader for his human rights defense actions, 37% could not give an answer. More than 50% of the repondents refused to support GLBT action "Mayor is a fag" (automatic translation of the poll >>).

English translation presented by Yerdna Bananes