Week-ending 9 October 2020
On 7 October 2020, President Putin’s birthday, activists from Pussy Riot put up LGBT flags on government buildings in Moscow.
The Moscow Times, Wednesday, 7 October 2020: Russian anti-government activists marked President Vladimir Putin’s 68th birthday Wednesday by hanging LGBT flags from key government buildings in Moscow. Pussy Riot said it hung the rainbow flags on the facades of “the most important symbols of Russian statehood.”The anti-Kremlin punk rock group shared photos of its members installing the LGBT flags on the Federal Security Service (FSB), district police, Supreme Court and Culture Ministry buildings. Two journalists were detained during the process, Pussy Riot said. The group listed a set of demands, including the legalization of same-sex “partnerships,” an end to discrimination against LGBT Russians and investigations into the reported kidnappings and killings of LGBT members in the ultraconservative republic of Chechnya. The group also called for the repeal of Russia’s controversial law banning homosexual “propaganda” toward minors. “We give this rainbow to everyone as a symbol of the missing love and freedom,” Pussy Riot said on its Facebook page.
