Andrei Kotov committed suicide in late 2024 while in preventive detention after being arrested on charges. crime Suspected of setting up an “extremist organization” in Russia, a travel agency for gay couples. However, Russia’s judicial system, like all Russian strongmen, operates under the direct influence of the Kremlin, and even in death, he could not be laid to rest in peace. Eleven months after his death, a Moscow court found him guilty of the crime he had been accused of.
Kotov, 48, was arrested on November 30, 2024. The founder of Men Travel was one of the first Russian citizens to be imprisoned after the Supreme Court ruling. putinism Declare support one year ago in 2023 Labeling the “international LGTBI movement” as “extremist” is an abstract label that has no connection to any particular group, while also criminalizing all public expressions of that community, from defending its existence to hosting private parties.
Russian judicial authorities charged the businessman with “founding an extremist organization,” “participating in an extremist organization,” and “filming minors up to the age of four for the production of pornographic material.” Kotov rejected these charges in his first judicial statement. On December 29, 2024, one month after his arrest, the businessman was found dead in his cell at Moscow Vodnik Prison. His lawyer admitted suicide.
In other parts of the world, the death of a person under investigation usually leads to extinguishment of criminal liability and prosecution. In Russia, now under Vladimir Putin, Moscow’s Golovinsky District Court has been holding trials behind closed doors for a year. The prosecutor’s office announced that it would continue the process, and the deceased’s legal representative did not request that he be removed from office. In the end, the judge found Kotov guilty.
Russia’s Investigative Committee said at the hearing that Kotov’s travel agency “performed acts aimed at creating a false image among the public about the constitutional institution of marriage and undermining traditional family values.”
torture
The owner of Men Travel reported that he became a victim of torture after his arrest. “I had to say what they wanted,” he said, claiming he was beaten and tortured with electric shocks. Gulagu.net, a group opposed to torture in Russian prisons, claims that Kotov organized trips for LGBT couples and that authorities spread information to inmates that he was gay. “The officials deliberately created a situation in which they could pressure him (in front of the police, but not in front of a judge), bend his will and force him to agree to demands for self-incrimination,” the NGO said in a statement.
Officials close to the Independent Media Tribunal Mojem obias knit (I can explain(Russian) emphasized that the security forces had set a trap for the businessman. “One of the witnesses was a puppet. He came to him at the request of the authorities to collect evidence against Kotov about LGBTI propaganda, but at trial even he could not say anything coherent. And other witnesses simply did not appear,” the paper reports.
According to Gulagu.net, at least two of the eight closed trials were postponed due to no witnesses appearing in court.
Regarding the filming of naked minors, BBC officials in the UK note that the charges refer to the alleged recording in a public place, but the content of the images is unclear.
regular raids
Persecution of LGTBI groups has worsened since November 2023, when the Supreme Court upheld Russia’s Ministry of Justice’s decision to label the so-called “international LGTBI movement” as extremists. Police frequently raid gay clubs and events, and several people have already been charged.
Human rights organization OVD-Info has been scrutinizing the application of this law for the past two years. “The legal basis for the charges in the extremist case is completely ridiculous. Perhaps this is a coincidence, perhaps a deliberate policy to intimidate everyone,” the NGO’s lawyers said in the report.
Russia’s Supreme Court ruled that the “international LGBT movement” was created in the United States in the 1960s with the supposed purpose of promoting “birth control policies that encouraged non-traditional family relationships,” and then spread to the former Soviet Union in 1983, when Marxists founded a pro-gay group in Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). According to the ruling, members of this supposed “movement” share the use of feminine terminology. their speech.
OVD-Info investigated the Supreme Court’s decision and concluded that it is supported by an excerpt from Wikipedia.
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