Petrelis Files

Russia's Top Human Rights Advocate
is Sued by a Gay Liar

(Russia's most dedicated and famous dissident advocate, Lyudmila Alekseeva, when she was detained by cops on New Year's Eve 2009 for attempting to stage a protest at the Kremlin. Credit: Reuters.)

Lyudmila Alekseeva is widely revered veteran human rights advocate in her 80s and is still active in the struggle for justice in Russia. She's led quite the courageous life, standing up for truth at times of great risk to herself, according to her Wiki page:

In the late 1960s she signed petitions in defense of other dissidents who were prosecuted by the Soviet authorities, including Alexander Ginzburg and Yuri Galanskov. In April 1968, Alexeyeva was expelled from the Communist Party and fired from her job at the publishing house. Nonetheless, she continued her activities in defense of human rights. In 1968-1972 she worked clandestinely as a typist for the first underground bulletin “The Chronicle of Current Events” devoted to human rights violations in the USSR.

In early 1976, Alexeyeva became a founding member of the Moscow Helsinki Group. As a member, she signed a number of documents issued by the Group, helped compose some of them, and collected information for some of the documents. Her responsibilities also included editing the Group’s documents and hiding copies of them from the authorities. ...

She's withstood decades of intimidation and woe from when the Soviet Union existed and now into the post-communist years under Vladimir Putin, and now the controversial and thin-skinned ego-driven gay Russian activist Nikolai Alekseev has sued her.

After dealing with Nikolai and seeing his many lies, obfuscations and inability to accept valid criticism during his disastrous American tour recently, I say with all honesty that Lyudmila speaks much truth about him. By the way, she has a blog giving readers a glimpse into her current causes.

This is excerpted from an autumn 2010 story on a Russian economic news site, and give the basic background. Pardon the Google translation:

Leader of the Russian gay community and the organizer of the Moscow authorities banned a gay parade Nikolai Alexeyev has sued the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva and radio station Ekho Moskvy. ...

In late August, [on Ekho Moskvy radio, Lyudmila was asked about Nikolai, the way their last names are almost the same, and his tactics. She said:] "Well, yes, this is my namesake. It is, thank you, Lord, not my son, not my brother, not because he was gay. It's just I'm quite calmly refer to these people. And because he is a man who is often lying. I personally experienced this, unfortunately." ...

It is reported that regardless of the outcome of the case, the Moscow Helsinki Group intends to continue its support of sexual minorities. ...

For stating the obvious reality about Nikolai, who has a law degree, the iconic Lyudmila was slapped with a nuisance lawsuit by him. The case is threading its way through a Russian court, and this week Nikolai gave an update on the latest court hearing:

On Monday, March 21 Meshchansky district court of Moscow postponed consideration of the claim organizer of Moscow Pride Nikolai Alekseev to the well-known human rights activist, the head of the Moscow Helsinki Group Lyudmila Alekseeva and radio station Ekho Moskvy. ...

Learning about the transfer of the case, Lyudmila Alekseeva said that she no longer intends to appear in court. ...

In its lawsuit to the court Nikolai Alexeyev said that Lyudmila Alekseeva circulated by the media discrediting his business reputation information. He demanded a formal apology ...

Organizer Pride stressed that "sought from Ms Alexeeva apology out of court, but they never came. In this connection, I had no other options but to restore his reputation in court." ...

The only way Nikolai will have his tattered and shameful reputation restored to something approaching decency can only come from him. No lawsuit, defamatory accusations about other Russians both gay and straight, attacks on his growing number of critics in Europe and the United States, or bad logic and lousy arguing skills can perform the magic that is required if Nikolai truly wants a good reputation.

I stand in solidarity with Lyudmila. Nikolai is a liar.