Arkhangelsk, July 27, 2015
While considering applications for events (including the LGBT's on August 2), the authorities found that "the information contained in the notification gives reasons to assume that the purposes of the planned public events violate Russian statutory bans," Sergey Namoilik, Director of the city hall's events department, told Interfax.
At issue is the law "Protecting children from information harmful to their health and development," which bans propaganda of non-heterosexual relations, the official said.
"The purposes of the public events stated by V. Ivanov [the applican] attest that holding them in Arkhangelsk, let alone in the city's central square and on the Severnaya Dvina Embankment - areas with many pedestrians, including citizens with children - would violate this law," Namoilik said.
There is no place in Arkhangelsk where you would not see any children, which is why the authorities have been unable to offer alternative venues for the LGBT event, the official said. The event organizer has been warned about the administrative liability if they go ahead with their plans and thus violate the aforementioned law, the official said.
It emerged earlier this week that LGBT activists are planning to conduct an event in Arkhangelsk on August 2. Activists from the movement representing sexual minorities also filed an application for a rally in support of LGBT to be staged in St. Petersburg on the same day.
