Police Raid Nightclub, Detain Dozens, No Reasons Given
By Sergey Chernov and Matt Brown
Staff Writers
A nightclub popular with gay people and their friends was raided by police on Tuesday night, witnesses said, with everybody in the club being transported to a police station for questioning until morning. Dozens of visitors to Central Station were humiliated with homophobic threats and given no explanation for their detention, witnesses said. According to Central Station’s founder and co-owner Ilya Abaturov, officially the raid was ordered by an investigator of the prosecutor’s office of the Moskovsky District who is investigating the death of a Ukrainian citizen whose body was allegedly found at the Moscow Station. “[The dead man] had a map of St. Petersburg with the address of the club [written on it], and allegedly it occurred to this investigator, according to the statement, to search the club, because it’s somehow connected,” said Abaturov by phone from Moscow on Thursday. “Immediately I asked the question, ‘Why don’t you take all the people in St. Petersburg at once? It is St. Petersburg this Ukrainian citizen came to, isn’t it?” “I live in Moscow, and I feel much more comfortable here, because we don’t have the police lawlessness that continues in St. Petersburg. I mean, there’s complete disrespect for citizens’ rights. “I also think that a search should not mean detaining people.” Abaturov said a third of visitors to Central Station, which been on the scene since 2005, are tourists and the city should be interested in welcoming them. “ [Governor Valentina] Matviyenko is opening a new port so there are cruise liners coming in. For instance, two or three months ago… we had a thousand Americans from this cruise liner [visting Central Station]. That’s when they should have come, and detained them all!” A police spokesman was unable to comment further on the case on Thursday. A witness to the raid, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issues involved, described what happened when he arrived at the club shortly after 1 a.m. “When I approached the club, the door was wide open and when I entered I saw several men wearing black at the door. I realized something was wrong because there was no music playing and the lights were on.” The witness said it was as if the police, who were dressed in civilian clothes and did not show any identification, had laid a trap. “I was surrounded and they wouldn’t let me leave. I was taken to the ground floor lounge [where cabaret shows are performed]. Around 60 people were gathered there, as well as the staff of the club.” There were signs of damage near to the entrance of the club, the witness said. About 30 minutes later, the witness said, the police instructed the clubbers to proceed to a bus that was parked outside. “Some people protested but they were told we were all being taken to the Chief Police Department of the Moskovsky district. The police threatened to use force and said they had explained the purpose of the raid to the club’s management.” The witness said the bus was too small to safely transport 60 people. “We were crammed in like sardines in a tin,” the witness said, describing how the clubbers attempted to shield their faces when they realized one officer was filming the operation with a digital camera. The clubbers were taken to the police station at 95 Moskovsky Prospekt where they were lined up, “like conscripts,” the witness said. “We proceeded through a checkpoint and were taken to the third floor — the Criminal Investigation Department,” the witness said. “For a while we stood in the corridor. They realized they had too many people and opened up a meeting room.” The clubbers were allowed to keep and use their mobile phones. The witness described how the police then took the staff of the club, about 10 people, to be interrogated. “Then they would come into the room every five minutes and demand answers. They asked who is gay and who is straight. Two said they were straight and were allowed to leave.” About 10 of the group were women and they were then taken for questioning. Two couples who could prove they were married were then allowed to leave, while a third who could not remained. The police were abusive and threatening, picking out people with dyed hair or piercings and using offensive, homophobic insults, the witness said. At one point they asked the group which among them were “tops” or “bottoms.” “There was no violence, but they treated us like cattle, like slaves,” the witness said. The police also attempted to blackmail the clubbers, the witness said, by threatening to reveal their patronage of the club to their families, educational establishments or places of work. One by one the clubbers were photographed and made to sign a document obliging them to help the police with further inquiries. At around 6 a.m., the witness was released although a number of the group remained. No explanation was given about the purpose of the operation, the witness said. Openly homophobic attacks and abuse are increasingly considered acceptable in Russia, with Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov repeatedly banning Gay Pride events and last year calling gay people “Satanic.”
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