Another reason to not visit Russia

The Girl has expended a significant amount of effort trying to persuade me to take her to St Petersburg in Russia. I've resisted, partly because I'm not sure there is even a word for vegetarian in Russian, but mainly because I baulk at supporting (even indirectly) a regime that seems to be sliding towards authoritarianism.

I can now add to my list of reasons the fact that it seems to be perfectly ok to attack people in broad daylight, as long as they are LGB. The Russian tourist board must be tearing their hair out at the sight of Moscow's police standing by as gay rights activists were attacked by neo-nazi thugs in the full view of the world's media. It suggests that anti-gay bigotry may be endemic in Russian society if the police were unwilling to step in even for appearances sake.

PS Google news turns up this press release from the Moscow authorities "applauding" the work of the police.