Tuesday 28 September 2010

Forced out. Gay hater Moscow mayor Luzhkov sacked. Finally

At last. Bigot No. 1 in Russia, homophobic Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov got sacked by Russia president Medvedev. Interestingly, president’s decree uses strongest possible words for the occasion and humiliatingly straightforward for Luzhkov (‘due to lost of confidence’):
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has fired Moscow's powerful mayor, Yuri Luzhkov. Mr Luzhkov, 74, was being removed because he had lost "the trust of the president of the Russian Federation", a presidential decree said. [...]
On Monday, after returning from a week's holiday in Austria, Mr Luzhkov said he would not stand down voluntarily.
His decades in the office were marked by blatant homophobia. He infamously referred to gays as “satanists” and "faggots". He constantly denied Moscow gay activists the right to peaceful actions, including crackdown on Gay Pride events.

Of course, the real reasons behind the sacking of Luzhkov are outside the human rights context, and rather an outcome of internal battles on the highest levels of power in Russia. Still, feels good for now. And I can only commend Russia president for such decision.

Prominent Russian gay activist Nikolai Alexeyev expressed hope that next mayor will be a person with “European mentality”.
Я рад, что Медведев совершил такой огромный политический шаг, избавив Москву от этого человека. Я не питаю иллюзий, но надеюсь, что мэром станет человек с европейским мышлением...[...]
And another quote from him: “Bravo, president Medvedev! You liberated Moscow from this parasite!”
“Браво, президент Медведев! Вы освободили Москву от этого паразита!”
Below is a video from the very latest action by gay activists in Moscow 'celebrating' Luzhkov’s birthday: “Luzhkov - faggot” (reflections of the language Luzhkov used to refer to gays)

2 comments:

artmika said...

Hilarious tweet from Russia president Medvedev (RU):

KermlinRussia - Это был неправильный мэр и он делал какой-то неправильный мед.

artmika said...

First - sacking Moscow mayor Luzhkov. Now good news from Russia's 2nd city. Court in St Petersburg declared ban on gay pride illegal.

Запрет гей-парада в Санкт-Петербурге признан незаконным