Gay rights abuses, war crimes and World Cup fever – it’s an ugly mix
I’m in Moscow trying to lie low and evade the Russian security service the FSB. I’m exhausted from the stress. It’s my sixth time in the country; each time I’ve visited in order to support LGBT+ campaigners who were attempting to hold a Pride parade and festival. On every occasion, these were suppressed by the authorities, sometimes violently. I’ve been arrested twice and once been beaten almost unconscious.
This time I’m here for the World Cup – but unlike thousands of fans I won’t be cheering on this festival of football. There can be no normal sporting relations with an abnormal regime like that of Vladimir Putin. LGBT+ people and many other Russians suffer state-sanctioned persecution and far right violence. These abuses need to be challenged – that is why I am in Moscow.
Russia’s 2013 anti-gay law against so-called “homosexual propaganda” has been used to suppress peaceful LGBT+ protests, sack LGBT+ teachers and suppress welfare organisations that support LGBT+ teenagers. Pride parades have been banned for 100 years in Moscow. Publicly advocating equality or giving affirmative advice to LGBT+ young people is a crime. Little action has been taken by the Russian government to crack down on homophobic extremists who lure LGBT+ people to rendezvous, via social media and dating apps, where they are subjected to degrading and often violent assaults.
Even worse, in Chechnya, which is part of the Russian Federation, the last year has seen an unprecedented anti-gay witch-hunt. This has included abductions, detention without trial, torture and even murder. The singer Zelim Bakaev disappeared in Chechnya in August 2017 and has never been seen since. President Putin has failed to condemn, let alone act against, these homophobic purges. He absurdly claims there is no evidence, despite victims and human rights organisations detailing the abuses.
On the eve of the World Cup, far-right and ultra-nationalist gangs have threatened to bash and stab LGBT+ football fans. The authorities have taken no discernible action against the perpetrators of these criminal threats.
I know from personal experience the hands-off approach adopted by the Kremlin. I was badly beaten by neo-Nazis opposite City Hall in Moscow in 2007, while the police stood by and watched. As I came close to losing consciousness, I was arrested while my main attacker was allowed to walk free. He was later seen to show an ID and was waved through police lines, leading to speculation that he was either a plainclothes policeman or a far-right extremist operating with police collusion. In addition, as a universal human rights defender, I cannot ignore Russia’s continuing indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas in Syria. This is a war crime under international law. Russian jets have bombed houses, schools, hospitals and mosques. Thousands of innocent civilians, including women and children, have been killed and wounded by Putin’s air force. The Kremlin is propping up a fascist dictator, President Assad. His regime massacred peaceful pro-democracy protesters in 2011 and has since then
killed, maimed and tortured hundreds of thousands of Syrian civilians and forced millions more to flee as refugees. Russia has used its veto in the UN security council to prevent or obstruct investigations into Assad’s chemical weapon attacks and his barrel bombing of heavily populated non-military targets.
I stand not just in solidarity with LGBT+ people, but also with the nonviolent democratic opposition to the Syrian dictatorship and its Russian henchmen.
The Russian state is not the only World Cup culprit. Football’s governing body, Fifa, must also be challenged over its decision to award the 2018 World Cup to a human rights abusing nation like this. Their showpiece tournament is being hosted by a country where LGBT+ football supporters are openly threatened by far right extremists and religious fanatics, who’ve warned that they will be hunted down, beaten and stabbed. And Fifa has chosen to follow this travesty with the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, where the human rights violations are even worse than in Russia, including against dissidents and migrant workers. Fifa pays lip service to diversity and equality while rewarding tyrant regimes with the prestige of hosting one of the world’s most celebrated sporting events. This is an irresponsible and shameful betrayal of the victims of human rights abuses and of those who courageously defend them. If anyone doubts the way an event such as this can be manipulated by vile dictators, we’ve already seen the revolting sight of the Chechen leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, parading around with one of the world’s greatest footballers, Mo Salah.
I have come to Russia this week because President Putin should not be allowed to score a PR coup with the World Cup. Most LGBT+ people in Russia are understandably too afraid to openly protest against their persecution. They fear arrest and being bashed by extremists. I am afraid too but to win freedom sometimes we have to be prepared to take risks.
I’m not here to tell Russians what to do. I’m supporting Russian LGBT+ advocates and other human rights defenders. They want President Putin to uphold Russia’s constitution and its international human rights obligations, such as the European Convention on Human Rights, which Russia signed and pledged to uphold. I am fearful of arrest and violent attack but undeterred. Inspired by the campaigning and heroism of Russian LGBT+s, I’m acting in solidarity with their battle for equal human rights.
Russia should not be allowed to bask in World Cup glory while abusing LGBT+ people and committing war crimes in Syria, the greatest humanitarian crisis of our time.
• Peter Tatchell is a human rights campaigner