Reports are emerging from Russia that government officials are encouraging residents to be on the lookout for neighbors "disseminating homosexual propaganda."
According to Gay Star News, residents of a building in the port city of Rostov-on-Don were warned by a flyer that a gay had been spotted in the building and urged them to remain vigilant. "There is one step from being homosexual to starting homosexual propaganda and molesting decent people," read the flyer.
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, authorities have raided the home of activist and lawyer Nicolai Alexeyev after a complaint was filed against him by a member of the Russian parliament. Officials reportedly ransacked his home and took computer equipment.
Alexeyev has been a prominent but controversial figure in Russian gay activism. After testifying before the parliament, he disappeared from public view and his Facebook account went blank.
Last week, he wrote an op-ed piece for the television channel RTwhere he decried efforts to ban Stolichnaya vodka as well as boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Instead, he called for revoking the travel documents of anti-gay Russian officials and urging the European Court to intervene on behalf of Russian gays.
"Russian LGBTs have to and will continue to live in their Russian reality and it is them who need help in their fight for equality and better life," Alexeyev wrote. "And we will continue this fight on the ground, with or without the support of the international community. The laws banning homosexual propaganda will be repealed, as they are now on the wrong side of history."