By Rachel Pulaski
During the G20 summit in St. Petersburg, Obama snubbed Putin by cancelling their meeting and instead met with LGBT activists in Russia. Many were worried about the political repercussions for the activists because Obama’s visit with the LGBT might fuel the growing anti-Western attitudes in Russia. The LGBT in Russia was not entirely pleased with Obama’s visit.
Now video of a Russian man being tortured and raped by 6 or 7 “vigilantes” was released. The vicious attack occurred a week after Obama met with the LGBT in Russia.
Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty reported:
A video depicting a man being raped with a bottle has surfaced on social media, in what appears to be the latest assault on Russia’s beleaguered homosexual community. The series of short clips, making the rounds on the mobile phone application WhatsApp show the victim, who seems to be an ethnic Uzbek, being bullied into confessing that he is gay.
He is asked to identify himself and is stripped of his clothes, which are later burned. He is then handcuffed, beaten, insulted, and threatened with a gun. Ultimately, he is forced to sodomize himself by sitting on a bottle, which is then pushed with a bat.
The man, visibly terrified, weeps throughout much of the ordeal.
Viewers on WhatsApp overwhelmingly praised the violence as a well-deserved punishment.
RFE/RL was able to track down a man who claimed to have taken part in the attack.
The Uzbek-speaking source, speaking from Russia, confirms that the victim was targeted because he is gay.
“We made him sit on a bottle so that he repents for his sins and comes to reason,” he told RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service. “We did this to protect the dignity of Uzbeks. We live and work here, we are in contact with people of different nationalities. There will be no respect for us otherwise.”
According to the purported assailant, the attack took place on September 11 in Novosibirsk, where he himself is a student, and all the participants were ethnic Uzbeks.
He says the man was first detained by a group of Russian antigay vigilantes who lured him to a fake date through a social-networking website.
