(Russia) - Moscow City Court has today dismissed the appeal of Moscow Gay Pride organisers Nikolai Alekseev and Nikolai Baev against the decision of Tverskoi district court which considered their claim against Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov’s statement earlier this year that Gay parades are “satanic gatherings”. In January, the Moscow Mayor said during his speech at the opening of the XV Christmas readings in Kremlin that “last year there was unprecedented pressure on Moscow in order to conduct a Gay parade here, which can only be called a satanic gathering. We did not allow this parade and will not allow in the future”. Moscow’s Tverskoi district court judge Natalya Makarova who considered the case in first instance on April 20 said in her decision that Moscow Mayor did not use the names of Nikolai Alekseev and Nikolai Baev in his speech and did not characterise their actions.
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