WATCH: Russian Goverment Spying on LGBT Activists Meeting With HRC, All Out
Russian government officials reportedly spied on a private strategy meeting between Russian LGBT activists and four international human rights organizations, then published the secretly recorded audio on state-sponsored TV, according to BuzzFeed.
A segment of the audio was released Tuesday, when it was broadcast on a Kremlin-backed network as part of an "exposé" uncovering the "threat to Russia" from the "homosexualists who attempt to infiltrate our country," reports BuzzFeed.
The so-called documentary report uses audio excerpts from an October 12 meeting that was unknowingly recorded at a St. Petersburg Holiday Inn, which included representatives of six of Russia's LGBT organizations as well as officials from the Human Rights Campaign, Human Rights Watch, and All Out, according to BuzzFeed. The October meeting was reportedly organized by the Open Society Foundation, founded by Democratic fundraiser and philanthropist George Soros. The two-day meeting was convened to discuss the increasingly dire state of LGBT existence in Russia ahead of the country's hosting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
This summer, the State Duma unanimously passed and president Vladimir Putin signed into law a ban on "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relationships" in any medium or venue that might be accessible to minors, essentially criminalizing positive depictions of LGBT identities. LGBT Russians and tourists have been arrested, beaten, and harassed with increasingly frequency and violence under the state-sanctioned discrimination. Russian and Olympic officials have repeatedly said that LGBT athletes and spectators will be safe in Sochi during the games without providing clear explanations as to what kind of behavior might be considered "propaganda."
http://www.advocate.com/news/world-news/2013/11/14/watch-russian-govt-spying-lgbt-activists-meeting-hrc-all-out
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