Russian arrested for allegedly running LGBTQ+ travel agency ‘found dead in his cell’ | The world | News

A Russian man arrested for allegedly running a travel agency for gay clients has died in custody in Moscow amid a major crackdown on the LGBTQ+ community, according to human rights group OVD-Info.

The group, which tracks political arrests, said Andrei Kotov, who was an entrepreneur and director of the “Men Travel” agency, was charged with “organizing and participating in extremist activities,” according to The Associated Press news agency.

Authorities did not specify which “extremist” association he belonged to, the group said.

Last November, the Kremlin included the “LGBT movement” on a list of banned extremist groups, effectively making LGBTQ+ activism illegal.

But it also exposed anyone in the community or even connected to it to prosecution and imprisonment, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation.

According to OVD-Info, an investigator told Kotov’s lawyer that her client took his own life Sunday morning while awaiting trial and was found dead in his cell.

Earlier this month, independent media Mediazona reported that Kotov denied the charges and claimed in court that law enforcement officers beat him and administered electric shocks during his arrest, despite the fact that he did not resist.

The LGBTQ+ community of Russia has been under legal and public pressure for over a decade but especially since the Kremlin sent troops to Ukraine in 2022.

In 2013, the Kremlin passed the first legislation restricting LGBTQ+ rights, known as the “gay propaganda” law, which banned any public endorsement of “non-traditional sexual relations” among minors.

Since the war began, Putin has argued that the war is a proxy battle with the West, which he says seeks to destroy Russia and “traditional family values” by promoting LGBTQ+ rights.