Travel Agent Accused of Booking Gay Tours Dies in Custody
Andrei Kotov, a 48-year-old Russian travel agent accused of organizing tours for gay men, has died in police custody in Moscow.
Andrei Kotov, the director of a travel agency that allegedly catered to gay customers in Russia, was found dead in custody in “Vodnik,” a pre-trial detention center in Moscow.
According to OVD-Info, an independent human rights group that tracks arrests in Russia, Kotov was found dead in his cell in the early morning hours of December 29. His lawyer, Leysan Mannapova, told the outlet that an investigator told her the cause of death was suicide.
The Russian state-run media outlet TASS reported that prison officials found the body around 2 a.m. The pro-Kremlin newspaper MK and the independent online news site Baza both reported Kotov’s body was covered in blood and had injuries consistent with suicide.
MK added in a Telegram post that Kotov’s prospects for being found not guilty were “bleak,” alleging that “in addition to charges of organizing an extremist community, he faced a prison term for distributing pornography.”
Kotov, 48, was arrested on November 30 when fifteen people affiliated with Russian security forces broke into his apartment and began beating him on the face and legs, as reported by the anti-Putinist publication Mediazona.
In a subsequent appearance before the Golovinsky Court of Moscow, Kotov claimed that two of his attackers were wearing masks. One of the men hit him in the face, while the other used a stun gun on him, even though he was not resisting arrest.
Kotov said the men urged him to say “what they wanted” regarding his travel agency business. Kotov insisted that he was involved in booking ordinary tourist trips, but the security officers told him, “No, that’s not right, for gays.”
Kotov claimed that the officers looked at his phone, which contained intimate information, and appeared to be filming the content there, as well as mocking and ridiculing him. He said that during the interrogation, a TV reporter entered the room and began asking him questions on camera without asking permission.
Prosecutors had alleged that Kotov, in order to make a profit, had created and promoted trips catering to “an association recognized as an extremist organization,” presumably a reference to the Russian Supreme Court’s ruling last year deeming the “global LGBTQ+ movement” an extremist organization.
“The defendant and active participants who supported the views and activities of the extremist organization, through trips, public events and the publication of images on the Internet, formed a false impression among citizens about the institution of marriage enshrined in the Constitution of the Russian Federation, and also carried out actions aimed at undermining traditional family values,” prosecutors claimed.
Prosecutors alleged that Kotov had been planning an upcoming New Year’s tour for gay men to travel to Egypt and had previously organized an LGBTQ cruise along the Volga River. Video taken by security officers during his arrest, circulated on Russian state media outlets, showed Kotov denying any involvement in the “LGBT movement.” However, prosecutors claimed that they had uncovered evidence showing he had organized tours aimed at gay men.
On December 2, Kotov pleaded not guilty to the charges against him, claiming that he organizes regular fishing and boating trips for men.
Mannapova argued that her client never promoted tours that would violate Russia’s expanded anti-LGBTQ propaganda law, which outlaws the dissemination of information that “promotes non-traditional sexual relations.”
Judge Kristina Kostryukova rejected a request to place Kotov on house arrest, ordering him to be held at a pretrial detention facility until January 28. She ordered that both Kotov’s Russian passport and his international passport be confiscated.
According to OVD-Info, Kotov’s girlfriend said that, while he was in pre-trial detention, it was impossible to give him warm clothes or food. Additionally, she claimed, the pretrial detention center refused to provide him with medication that he was supposed to take daily.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant reported that the Investigative Committee, Russia’s federal investigative and anti-corruption agency, is looking into Kotov’s death, which has been preliminarily ruled a suicide. Investigators will later decide whether to pursue charges against employees of Russia’s federal penitentiary service, for “negligence” and “incitement to suicide.”
Kotov’s prosecution is part of a years-long push by the Russian government to crack down on Western influences and silence political opposition groups, whom the Kremlin frequently accuses of having been “indoctrinated” by nefarious Western liberals. As part of that effort, Russian President Vladimir Putin and pro-Putin lawmakers have sought to court social and religious conservatives and have seized upon opposition to the gay community and LGBTQ rights more broadly as a way to rally Russian citizens to their cause.
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