Alleged Russian ‘gay tour’ organizer found dead in prison cell

Andrey Kotov was arrested on the charges of violating the ban on “LGBT propaganda”

Travel agency owner Andrey Kotov, who was accused of arranging ‘gay tours’ in Russia and abroad, has been found dead in his cell in Moscow where he awaited trial for extremism charges. 

Kotov’s body with signs of suicide was discovered in the Vodnik pre-trial detention center on Sunday, news agency TASS reported, citing police. His death was confirmed by his lawyer Leysan Mannapova, as well as Eva Merkachyova, a member of the presidential Human Rights Council.

The owner of the firm ‘Man Travel’ was arrested in late November. According to the Moscow court system, police believed Kotov was organizing tours that involved “propaganda of the ideology of the LGBT movement.” TASS cited a police official as claiming that Kotov was planning such a trip to Egypt during the New Year holiday season. 

Russia outlawed “LGBT propaganda” in 2022, after which “international LGBT movement” was designated as an extremist group. 

Kotov denied any wrongdoing and accused police of torture. “My phones have photos and videos of participants going to museums, sailing on a motorboat and sunbathing. It is perfectly clear that these were ordinary tours. There was no propaganda of any kind, let alone extremism,” Kotov said shortly after his arrest.

Read more

Throughout 2024, police raided multiple gay bars and clubs and busted “LGBT gatherings” in other locations in major cities. In March, a court in Orenburg, city near the border with Kazakhstan, ordered the arrest of a manager and an art director of a local gay nightclub, ‘Pose’. 

Althought homosexuality itself is not banned in Russia, courts and law enforcement have broad discretion in defining what constitutes “propaganda” of same-sex relations.

“Homosexual relationships and propagandizing those relationships are different things,” Human Rights Council chief Valery Fadeev told news agency RBC earlier this month. 

“A homosexual relationship, that’s private life. And no one interferes with that. Gays have always been around, in all times, more or less,” Fadeev said.