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Breaking: Nikolai Alekseev Launching Protest to Boycott Swiss AIR

Melanie Nathan; September 30, 2010

Russia’s best known gay activist, Nikolai Alekseev, was detained prior to boarding a flight to Geneva in Moscow’s Domodevo Airport.  After that he went missing.   Friends were unable to get information from airport security and authorities and the Russian Police said they had no record of him. The following day, the Airport authorities released a statement that he was detained after refusing to remove his shoes in a standard security check. His friends and long-time colleagues knew this was not a likely story.

The next day, messages were sent from Nikolai’s Swiss mobile phone, informing us that he is in Minsk, claiming political asylum and that he has withdrawn the case against the Mayor of Moscow.  A couple of his more canny colleagues text back, asking questions Alekseev would be able to answer. As they suspected, they received no answer.

He was interrogated and, he thinks, drugged and then dumped 100km from Moscow after being picked up with the connivance of Swiss Air Lines whilst trying to board a plane to Geneva.

Alekseev now back in Moscow, has provided  a full account of his ordeal and is pursuing his bid  to sue the airport  airport security service for violating international law and allowing him to be arrested by Russian police once already in the international zone of airport departures.

Alekseev contacted me at LezGetReal today. He said that he wanted to thank all those who had helped him during his ordeal by getting the message out and tracking his whereabouts. He said that the hard work protesting the Mayor of Moscow was worth it – after the firing of the Mayor.

In true Alekseev spirit he seeks justice and fairness and the refusal of the return of his luggage by Swiss Air signals some form of complicity and responsibility. He has participated in the organizing of a boycott against Swiss Air and wants this message to get out to all International activists to spread around.

“Thanks for what you did Melanie. I had no time to thank all those who helped me. I know it’s bad but I am just not having time for myself in the last days. Tomorrow, we do a big protest against the Swiss Airlines who has some share of responsibility. I met the head of their Russian office this afternoon. I was shocked. I explained that the only thing I expect from them are excuses and my bag which is kept by them at the airport. I don’t claim any money. I don’t need it. And you know what? They denied everything and they don’t want to give me my bag.  It’s just unbelievable.”

He continues: “Tomorrow, many media plan to come to our protest. We are launching a boycott campaign against Swiss Airlines.”

“If you want to report that, it would help them understand that this goes beyond a Russian story and that it is international. Thanks again for all your help.”

SHOW Support for Alekseev – one of our bravest of heroes… BOYCOTT SWISS AIR and Protest outside their Offices all over the World.

Paul Canning a LGBT Asylum Activist in the UK  is probably not holding his breathe and neither am I as we ask for this boycott, especially here in the USA.

Recently Canning reported in an article on his BLOG that the US and gay activists in the USA have shown very little support for Nikolai. He marvels at the lack of interest saying: “ The United States too has shown no support. Several US Congresspeople, LGBT Asylum News is aware, have asked the State Department to take an interest but it hasn’t made any statement. This, again, follows a pattern. Last year Hillary Clinton visited Moscow to unveil a statue of the gay American poet Walt Whitman. Activists appealed to her to use the opportunity to support LGBT rights in Russia. She didn’t.

The organizers of St Petersburg Pride asked the US Consulate in St. Petersburg in July to help in advance of St. Petersburg Pride by screening a documentary, Beyond Gay, the Politics of Pride, which features the differences between several Gay Prides around the world, like New York, Vancouver, Sao Paulo, Moscow, Warsaw. The Americans refused, and the excuse was: “We cannot show a Canadian documentary in the US consulate.”

Clinton has spoken to US audiences about her support for LGBT rights internationally, as have EU Foreign Ministers – apparently this solidarity doesn’t include Russia.”

I am not making excuses for our lack of support here in the USA.  But I will say that given the nature of our own suppression here, at the hands of our own elected officials who have chosen to remain hostage to the religious right wing bigots instead of legislating for equality, civil and human rights for their own, what can we expect when it comes to the World?  Our activists are reeling from the denial of the repeal of DADT.

In defense of Hilary Clinton, I would mention that she did go out to bat against the anti- homosexual death sentence law in Uganda.

When I say SHOW Support for Alekseev – one of our bravest of heroes… BOYCOTT SWISS AIR and Protest outside their Offices all over the World; Support for Alekseev is support for each and every single LGBT person around the Globe.  How dare Swiss Air assist in such debauchery – maybe YOU will be next!

Melanie Nathan
nathan@privatecourts.com
@oblogdeeoblogda

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