Video recorded this week during the arrest of gay rights activists in Moscow shows what Russia's legal ban on âpropaganda for nontraditional sexual relationshipsâ looks like in practice.
The raw footage, accompanying a report from the independent Russian news site Grani, shows police officers arresting activists as they marched through the Russian capital's Arbat district on Sunday, chanting and carrying a banner that read: âHitler Also Began With the Gays. No to Fascism in Russia.â The activists also chanted against legal moves to take children away from gay parents.
The video also captures the response of some bystanders, who initially intervened to prevent the police officers from using excessive force, before discovering what the protest was about. The clip is not subtitled, but the intervention of the bystanders begins when an older woman steps in and tells the officers, âYou can't act like that.â
She then turns to a man behind her and says, âHey man, help out.â
The man, wearing a black hat and a leather jacket, then says: âMajor. Officer. What did they do?â
A short time later, as the confusion continues, a female protester in a black jacket and a rainbow scarf explains to the woman and an officer, âWe are protecting the rights of L.G.B.T.â
The officer asks, âWhat's that?â
The protester replies, âLesbians, gays, bisexuals, transgenders.â
The older woman asks, âYou're for them?â
The protester says, âWe're for them.â
The older woman says: âOhhhhhhhh no. Then no.â
The protester responds, âHitler started with the gays.â
The older woman says, âThis is the decline of morality.â
At a later stage, as a male protester in a blue hat is being pushed into a police car, he shouts, âWhat law have I violated?â
The officer answers simply, â19,â referring to the law on following police orders.
A female bystander asks, âWhat did they do to you?â
The male protester says, âNow they're going to hit me!â
After the police bundle him into the car, an officer says to the female bystander, âWe warned him.â