MOSCOW – A five-hour siege, surrounded by far-right militants and Orthodox Church members ready to lynch "sinners," ended late into the night. The protest, at times violent, against the De la Guarda club in Moscow, where a gay and lesbian party was taking place last night, did not intervene. The police did not intervene.
""Since they're holding a festival until May 9th, we'll organize this kind of action every time they have their orgies."", said Igor Artiumov, leader of the "Union of All Russians," the group that called the demonstration. ""We protest peacefully against this sin that must not proliferate – he added – against their orgies, against these sodomites who crawl like cockroaches.".
‘'The siege began around 9.30pm, when there were around 150 people inside the premises, as reported by Alexei Golussenko, one of the party organizers. About thirty police officers were dispatched to the scene in two buses to evacuate those inside the venue, but they did not attempt to disperse the protesters.
The protesters prevented the guests from approaching or leaving, shouting ""Russia without pederasts"", throwing bottles. A man was beaten by three teenagers. ""It was supposed to be the most important event of the year. We were expecting more than a thousand people," said Golussenko, who said it was "a planned act."‘.
