Man accused of running an LGBTQ+ travel agency dies in Russian police custody

A Russian man, charged with running an LGBTQ+ travel agency, has been found dead in his cell, rights groups and Russia state media have reported.

Andrei Kotov, the director of the Men Travel agency, was arrested in November and charged with taking part in and organising “extremist” activities, in the wake of Russia’s Supreme Court designating “the international LGBT movement” as extremist.

According to OVD-Info, a human rights group focused on ending political persecution in Russia, Kotov’s lawyer Leysan Mannapova was told her client had taken his own life at the Moscow detention centre in the early hours of Sunday morning (29 December).

Writing on X/Twitter, an OVD-Info spokesperson said: “The investigative committee has begun an investigation into the death of travel agency director Andrei Kotov, accused of organising

READ MORE OF THIS POST AT Pink News