RUSSIA: Paratroopers beat up gay activist on national holiday

Record ID: 277933

  • Title: RUSSIA: Paratroopers beat up gay activist on national holiday
  • Date: 2nd August 2013
  • Summary: ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA (AUGUST 2, 2013) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF PARATROOPERS BULLYING GAY ACTIVIST KIRILL KALUGIN VARIOUS POLICEMAN DETAINING KALUGIN AND PUTTING HIM INTO POLICE CAR PARATROOPERS BLOCKING POLICE CAR POLICE CAR LEAVING VARIOUS OF RIOT POLICEMEN DETAINING PARATROOPERS AND PUTTING THEM INTO POLICE BUS PARATROOPERS CHEERING AND SHOUTING AT POLICEMEN 'SUCK THE FAG
  • Embargoed: 17th August 2013 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Russian Federation
  • Country: Russia
  • Topics: Crime,Conflict,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA2P7LBR3XLU7B1IR31TS331V2
  • Story Text: A group of Russian paratroopers attacked a gay activist in St. Petersburg on Friday (August 2) while celebrating national paratrooper's day in Russia's second largest city.
    Kirill Kalugin, a gay rights activist, showed up near St. Petersburg's winter palace as part of a one-man picket designed to support the homosexual rights movement.
    He was quickly surrounded by paratroopers, who are known for celebrating their national holiday by drinking heavily, and gathering for rowdy celebrations in public places.
    Police officers broke up the protest by arresting Kalugin and several paratroopers.
    In June, Russian president Vladimir Putin signed a law banning gay "propaganda," which critics have said effectively disallows all gay rights rallies and could be used to prosecute anyone voicing support for homosexuals. Putin also banned same-sex couples from adopting Russian children.
    In Moscow many of the city's parks were overtaken by celebrating paratroopers wearing striped shirts and blue berets, toasting and greeting each other as part of a tradition carried over from Soviet times.
    "We celebrate and we will always celebrate (this day) always! Until we die! Glory to paratroopers! Glory to paratroopers!" a group of paratroopers chanted after swimming in a fountain in Moscow's Gorky Park.
    Believed to be the elite of the Soviet and the modern Russian army, many paratroopers come from other cities of Russia to celebrate the holiday and to meet their comrades.
    "We have come here to spend time with our families and friends. To meet with comrades-in-arms, to remember the old days, how we served together. It was rough but we made it through and our spirit got stronger. Glory to paratroopers!" paratrooper Alexei said, raising his hand to salute his comrades.
    Paratroopers were believed to be the best trained and most battle-worthy Soviet troops, who had to carry out the hardest missions during the war in Afghanistan in the Soviet era, or the local conflicts in post-Soviet areas such as Chechnya, Abkhazia.
    Russian airborne forces, the most mobile of Russian troops, also played a key role in the conflict in Georgia's rebel South Ossetia region when Russia crushed Georgian troops in five days and briefly occupied large chunks of Georgian land in 2008.
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