Indeed, groups like the one in Kamensk-Uralsky - which belongs to a Russia-wide network operating under the banner "Occupy Pedophilia" - have so far enjoyed almost total impunity for their treatment of homosexuals. "They have received signals from the highest officials in the state - the Duma, the president - that basically you can do whatever you want if it concerns gay people because they are not first-class citizens they are second-class or even third-class." "They have been given carte blanche for all their actions by these laws," he says. Nikolai Alekseyev, founder of Gay Pride Russia, believes the law sends the wrong signals to society and in the minds of some legitimizes violence against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) communities. Campaigners blame this on a controversial new law outlawing so-called "homosexual propaganda" that was passed unanimously by the Russian State Duma and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin last month.
Rights activists say such footage is a sign that homophobia in Russia is not only becoming more prevalent, but also more aggressive. The stated goal of the videos was to "cure" these young men of their homosexuality. Other victims were known homosexuals who were forcibly picked up off the street. Some were shot after the group contacted their victims online and lured them into what they believed would be romantic liaisons with other young men - in at least some cases with minors.
These are just a few of the images contained in a series of shocking videos filmed by a nationalist gang in Kamensk-Uralsky, an industrial town of 175,000 inhabitants in Russia's Sverdlovsk Oblast near the Ural Mountains. Others show young men being taunted with phallic sex toys, threatened with axes, and forced to carry wooden crucifixes. MOSCOW - Some show youths being forced to drink urine, or having it poured over their heads.