Andrey Kotov in court in Moscow, 2 December 2024. Photo: Mediazona
A Moscow court has remanded a travel agent in custody for two months for organising tours aimed at queer customers, independent news outlet Mediazona reported on Monday.
The investigator said a criminal case against Andrey Kotov, the director of Men Travel, was opened on 28 November. He has been charged with participating in and organising the activities of an “extremist community”. Kotov has denied the charges against him.
News of Kotov’s detention was first reported on Saturday, with footage taken during a police raid on his home in the middle of the night showing the travel agent breathless while being questioned aggressively by uniformed law enforcement officers.
Kotov has been accused of organising gay tours, including a boat trip on the Volga, and was said to be planning a tour to Egypt in the near future. The investigator said an examination of Kotov’s telephone confirmed his involvement in the “crime”, which, he added, was “directed against the constitutional order and security of the state”.
Kotov said that two law enforcement officers struck him — one in the face, the other using a taser — as he was being searched.
“Some 15 people showed up in the middle of the night. I was beaten, punched in the face, hit on the legs. I am bruised. I didn’t put up any resistance. I was extremely surprised at what was going on. … I had to say what they wanted,” Kotov said.
The court granted the investigator’s request and remanded Kotov in custody until 28 January, Mediazona said.
Police in Moscow also raided a number of queer party venues in the early hours of Saturday morning, exactly a year after Russia’s Supreme Court had ruled the “international LGBT movement” to be an “extremist organisation”, effectively making it illegal to be queer in Russia.
