Summary
Andrei Kotov, a Russian travel agency director accused of organizing LGBTQ+ tours, died in pre-trial detention in Moscow.
Authorities claim his death was a suicide, but rights groups highlight previous reports of beatings and abuse during his arrest.
Kotov was charged with “extremist activities” after Russia banned the LGBTQ+ movement as extremist in 2023, intensifying its crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights.
He denied organizing specific LGBTQ+ events, calling them ordinary tours.
His death has raised concerns about the treatment of detainees and the broader suppression of dissent in Russia.
i have that thought every single time i see someone get arrested by the police in the united states; i hope to myself that they don’t experience the same fate that most brown people like me experience at the hands of those thugs.
I have had interactions with police in both russia and US (I am not white). It is not even close.
Police in the US clearly do a lot of very bad, brutal things, but they still have a measure of self-control.
Russian police are literally more like open criminals without any sort of accountability (outside of targetting say the son of a well connected government thug or oligarch by mistake). Russian police are completely unhinged.
was that self control in the room with them when they beat that that guy to death last weekend while he was still cuffed down the entire time?
Have you ever dealt with russian police? And if yes, in what context? What is your russian like, what level is it?
Keep in mind I explicitly said that US police are brutal.
Why does it have to be a competition?
ACAB!
You did when you tried to make a pretty weak equivalency argument.
That’s the other side to the same shitty coin
Because “ACAB” is not a viable approach. Even in a society where all the oligarchs and their lackeys are serving multi-decade prison terms, you still need a police institution.
And framing this as a “competition” inherently whitewashes the crimes of the russian police.
You misunderstand ACAB in the same way your buddies understand “all lives matter”
Why do you assume I or my buddies have any opinion on “all lives matter”. I am not from the US.
I am talking about practical, real world matters. A good police institution, one that is loyal to society and not to oligarchs/crooks is something to strive for. Meaningless, self-indulgent polemics such as “ACAB” (if you can even call this a polemic) is not the way to go.
Then you might be forgivable for not understanding what ACAB means; but not so if you refuse to accept that people who look like me in my country are generally aware that having to involve the police for anything can be just as dangerous as it was for the poor person in op’s post.