Infamous Anti-Gay Lawmaker Raids Russian Gay Club, Brings Camera Crew, Cops (Video)

One of Russia’s most anti-gay lawmakers raided a gay club in a publicity-seeking evening complete with cops and cameras.

Vitaly Milonov is the hyperbolic, radically religious Russian lawmaker who wrote St. Petersburg’s law banning homosexual “propaganda” and the promotion of homosexuality to children. While his own legislature later repealed the law, Vladimir Putin based his own extreme anti-gay law on Milonov’s. 

Milonov is a vigilante and a crusader. Last year he tried to get the Queer Fest film festival shut down. Not legislatively, but he showed up at the festival and called the police. While he was there he ran into a French journalist who convinced him to talk on camera. Milonov insisted there is no violence in Russia against gay people, instead, he claimed, “I think that much violence goes from gay people to straight people,” and that gay people rape children.

Like many Russians, Milonov believes that all gay people are pedophiles. 

Which may be why he raided a gay nightclub – personally – last weekend. Milonov tried to sneak into Central Station, a well-known gay nightclub, but was thwarted by bouncers because he wasn’t properly attired for the evening’s Loshadka party, where revelers are encouraged to dress flamboyantly. The camera crew behind him might have had something to do with him being refused entry.

His reason for raiding the nightclub? He claimed he had received numerous calls from parents who said their under-age children were at the club.

Spoiler: There were no children in the club, according to several news reports.

Here’s how the Moscow Times reports Milonov’s adventure.

Milonov, who came dressed in plain clothes and a newsboy cap, was denied entry into the club, which was being guarded by several muscular bouncers. 

He then called up a squad of riot police for assistance securing entry into the building. With police backup, Milonov managed to get inside the venue, where he proceeded to check attendees’ documents en masse. Several minors were apparently found, the youngest of whom was a 15-year-old girl, FlashNord news agency reported. 

“We found around 20 teenagers there that were practically having sex on the stage,” Milonov told Baltinfo news agency.

A 15-year-old girl went to the club and saw what a 15-year-old girl should never see. She tried to leave, but the guards wouldn’t let her. One of them struck her,” he said, Baltinfo reported.

But Russian news site Baltinfo, via a Google translation, reports that “Police found no minors,” and “the State Ministry of Interior denied” Milonov’s “story about how he was brought out of the gay club kids.”

Another Russian news site, cited in the Moscow Times report, also states no children were found, adding that Milonov’s actions suggest it was a PR stunt.

Meanwhile, last month, a fellow lawmaker, Konstantin Dobrynin, accused Milonov of promoting terrorism, illegal firearms possession, and demanded he undergo a mental health examination.

Here’s video of Milonov’s escapade:

 

Image via YouTube