Russian police visit a theater, searching for gay people, but they went to the wrong show

Two uniformed police officers visited the “Theater.doc” Moscow theater house on October 25, apparently searching for “gays” in a reading of the diary of Novaya Gazeta freelance reporter Khudoberdi Nurmatov (who writes under the pen name Ali Feruz).

But the officers went to the wrong stage and ended up at a performance of “The True Stories of Women, Men, and Gods” — a PG-14 reimagining of five ancient Greek myths. Officers reportedly asked theater staff if the performance was “official” and if there was anyone “of nontraditional orientation” involved in the production.

• Nurmatov says a “slow painful death” awaits him in Uzbekistan, if he’s forced to return. On August 1, hearing a Russian judge’s decision to deport him, Nurmatov attempted to kill himself in the middle of the courtroom. In Uzbekistan, the journalist could face criminal charges for trying to recruit people to join “radical groups.”
• Later in August, the European Court of Human Rights prohibited Nurmatov’s deportation from Russia, until it can review his case and reach a decision on the legality of his deportation. A Moscow court later ruled that Nurmatov will remain in a special temporary detention center for foreign citizens until the ECHR has reviewed his appeal, or until a Russian court has allowed him to leave state custody.
• On October 20, a Moscow district court rejected Nurmatov’s lawsuit against the Interior Ministry’s refusal to grant him temporary asylum in Russia.