On May 17, the advocacy project GayRussia.Ru posted the official letter sent to the parade’s organizers explaining the city’s decision. “At the current time, the government of Moscow is receiving numerous messages from representatives of state government agencies and subjects of the Russian Federation, religious denominations, public organizations, the Cossacks, and individual citizens asking that we not allow such public events to be held,” the letter reads. “In the opinion of many respondents, the parade could bring about a wave of protests that could snowball into mass violations of public order.”

Moscow gay rights leader Nikolai Alekseev said the permit request had been filed with city authorities on April 12. “It was done a day after the verdict from the European Court of Human Rights saying that Moscow’s bans of three gay parades from 2006-2008 were illegal went into effect,” he said, referring to the court’s October 2010 ruling that the Russian authorities had violated three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights by banning the parades.

Alekseev stressed that “the government of the capital and Mayor Sobyanin personally will be responsible for any possible disorder in the center of Moscow on May 28. We intend to uphold our right to peaceful assembly, even without the permission of the authorities.”

He also said that he plans to appeal the ban and that gay rights activists intend to send a letter to President Dmitri Medvedev asking permission to hold the parade next to the Kremlin in the Alexander Gardens.

In addition, a press release on GayRussia.Ru says that activists are appealing to world governments asking them to ban homophobic Russian government representatives from entering their countries.

In Alekseev’s words, a list of 487 politicians, civil servants, and public figures, 100 judges, 19 government agencies and 40 parties, movements and organizations that the activists have deemed are homophobic will be sent to the European Union and other democratic countries for them to consider whether they want to offer entry visas to people who openly promote hatred of sexual minorities and don’t share the fundamental values of a free democratic society.

The list includes Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Federation Council Chairman Sergei Mironov, the United Russia party, the Communist party, the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia, the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Justice Ministry, the Prosecutor General’s Office, the entire makeup of the Constitutional Court, and others.

Nikolai Alexeyev, founder of the Gayrussia.ru rights project and one of the event’s organizers, told Interfax on that he was told over the phone by the mayor’s office that the application for Moscow Pride had been turned down. Parades, protests, rallies, and other similar events require government sanction to be legally held in Russia; organizing an unsanctioned rally can lead to jail time.

The city did not appear to attempt to hide its flagrant violation of Russian law in banning Moscow Pride. “Contrary to the demands of acting legislation, the Moscow government did not propose any kind of alternative [locations] for holding the planned event to organizers of the march,” reads a statement on Gayrussia.ru.

Alexeyev said that he and his fellow organizers intend to file a complaint about the city’s decision with the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. More immediately, he said they would appeal the decision in Moscow’s Tverskoy Court after receiving written confirmation that the parade has been banned.

“We’re going to try to get the case considered by the court before the date of the event – May 29,” Alexeyev said.

The Strasbourg Court is set to rule this year on three cases filed by Moscow Pride organizers against the city for banning their parades in 2006, 2007, and 2008. Their event was also prohibited in 2009, but 30 participants attempted to march in defiance of the ban. Five minutes after the beginning of the march, all 30 activists were arrested by OMON riot police.

Earlier, Alexeyev stated that if the Moscow city authorities refuse to sanction this year’s Moscow Pride parade, they would try to gain permission to hold it on the territory of an embassy of a Western country.

Moscow Mayor Luzhkov is famous for his vocal homophobia, routinely denouncing gay pride parades a “satanic activity.” In January, he vowed to ban what he called “the display of blasphemy under the guise of creativity and protected by the principle of freedom of speech” in Moscow on a permanent basis.

Russian gay rights advocates have suffered from strong public and governmental opposition dating back to Soviet times. In accordance with a Stalinist decree, homosexuality carried a sentence of up to five years in prison until 1993, when legislators legalized it at the urging of the Council of Europe. It remained on the list of Russian mental illnesses until 1999. While there are no laws explicitly banning homosexuality, government authorities have failed to recognize the need for anti-discrimination legislation. Public opinion remains strongly opposed to such reforms – as of 2005, 43.5 percent of Russians supported the re-criminalization of adult homosexual acts.

In a statement on Monday, the mayor expounded upon his history of banning the events, which activists have attempted to hold annually since 2006.

“It is impossible to gaze kindly upon the display of blasphemy under the guise of creativity and protected by the principle of freedom of speech,” said Luzhkov. “The activities of destructive cults are not allowed, and the propaganda of so-called unisexual love is unacceptable.”

“For several years, unprecedented pressure has been exercised on Moscow with the demand to hold a gay parade here,” the mayor went on, “which can be called nothing more than a satanic activity. We have not allowed such parades and will not allow them in the future.”

“Everyone should take this not as theory, but as an axiom,” he concluded.

Nikolai Alexeyev, founder of the Gayrussia.ru rights project and organizer of the Moscow Pride annual parades, said that the city’s sexual minority was prepared to hold a march in Moscow on May 29, and had already prepared the necessary application. He added that guests from other countries had been invited to the event, following suit with previous years’ parades.

An attempt to hold Moscow Pride in May 2009 ended with the arrest of all 30 participants, including Alexeyev and British human rights activist Peter Tatchell.

Russian gay rights advocates have suffered from strong public and governmental opposition dating back to Soviet times. In accordance with a Stalinist decree, homosexuality carried a sentence of up to five years in prison until 1993, when legislators legalized it at the urging of the Council of Europe. It remained on the list of Russian mental illnesses until 1999. While there are no laws explicitly banning homosexuality, authorities have failed to recognize the need for anti-discrimination legislation. Public opinion remains strongly opposed to such reforms – as of 2005, 43.5 percent of Russians supported the re-criminalization of adult homosexual acts.