Russian police, acting under laws that criminalise “LGBT propaganda,” raided a number of bars and nightclubs in Moscow early on Saturday, according to official television.
According to accounts, cops searched club patrons’ documents during the raids and seized video cameras, laptops, and smartphones.
Social media footage purportedly showed police directing partygoers to lie down on the ground while they patrolled the Moscow nightclub Arma.
A police van parked outside the well-known homosexual bar Mono in central Moscow, and another video showed patrons being led out with their hands over their heads.
An unidentified nightclub on Skladochnaya Street was also raided by police, according to the Interior Ministry, for “propagandising the ideology of the banned LGBT movement.”
According to state-run news outlet TASS, police also arrested the leader of the travel agency “Men Travel” on charges of violating anti-LGBT laws. The 48-year-old was allegedly planning a trip to Egypt for “supporters of non-traditional sexual values” for the Russian New Year vacation, according to the agency.
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