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By Gianluca Mezzofiore | May 13, 2013 10:31 PM EST



A demonstrator holds up a picture depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin with make-up (Reuters)


The brutal death of a 23-year-old man in Russia’s southern city of Volgograd in an apparent homophobic attack has put the spotlight on rising violence against gay under president Vladimir Putin’s neo-conservative rule, according to gay activists.

The man was beaten, sexually assaulted with beer bottles in his anus, set on fire and had his head crushed with a heavy stone by a 22-year-old man and a former convict, aged 27.

"He was raped with beer bottles and had his skull smashed with a stone," Natalia Kunitskaya, a spokeswoman for the Volgograd region branch of the Investigative Committee, told AFP.

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The victim’s naked body was found in the courtyard of an apartment building in Volgograd. Kunitskaya admitted the attack has been a hate crime, in a rare admission from authorities on the issue of homophobia in the country. The victim apparently had been drinking with the two men, while celebrating Victory Day, which is national holiday in Russia.

Putin, who has stoked traditional religious values since he came back to the president’s post last year, aims to give the Orthodox Church - a staunch opponent of homosexuality rights - a more public role as a moral authority in Russia.

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Civil rights activists said a nationwide law could be used to halt gay rights demonstrations and oppress the LGBT community. Although homosexuality was decriminalised in Russia in 1993, prejudice against it remains high.

Gay rights campaigner Nikolai Alexeyev said the law amounted to to "a call to action for the scum who committed this crime".
"It essentially gives these people carte blanche to commit such crimes," he said of the law.

However, there are no official figures on anti-gay crime in Russia, as most cases go unreported or are not classified as hate crime by police.

Lawyer Maria Kozlovskaya, who works with the LGBT community, points to an internet poll late last year that found 15 percent of about 900 LGBT people surveyed in Russia said they had been physically attacked at least once in the previous 10 months. -- http://au.ibtimes.com/

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I cant believe people still live like in ancient times unsa man intawn sala sa tao kung mao iyang pagkatao.

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