Nikolay Alexeyev

Nikolay Alexeyev

Nikolay Alexandrovich Alexeyev (also spelled as Alekseyev, Alekseev, or Alexeev (Russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Алексе́ев) born on 23 December 1977 in Moscow) is a Russian LGBT rights activist, lawyer and journalist.

On 21 October 2010 Nikolay Alexeyev won the first ever case at the European Court of Human Rights on LGBT human rights violations in Russia. The Strasbourg-based court unanimously ruled that by banning three Moscow Prides in 2006, 2007 and 2008 Russia breached three articles of the European Convention. In January 2011 Russian Government asked the Court to refer the case for re-consideration to the Grand Chamber. On 11 April 2011 five judges panel of the European Court dismissed Russia's appeal and the verdict on illegality of Moscow Pride bans came into force the same day.

Since 2005 Nikolay Alexeyev is known as the founder and chief organizer of Moscow Pride, which is officially banned year after year by city authorities. Together with the activists of his advocate group Russian LGBT Human Rights Project GayRussia.Ru, Nikolay Alexeyev attempted to organize a large number of public actions to defend the rights of sexual minorities in Russia. For five years none of the LGBT public actions for which he and his fellow activists required the permission of the Russian authorities was allowed to take place. On 1 October 2010 he was for the first time ever authorized to organize a sanctioned picketing in Moscow with the aim to call for economic boycott of "Swiss Air Lines" due to its role in the arrest of Nikolay Alekseev at Moscow "Domodedovo" airport on 15 September 2010.

Nikolay Alekseev is fluent in Russian and English and also has a grasp of French. His blog reports that since the year 2000 he visited forty nine countries. He took part in Gay pride parades in different cities of the world: London, Paris, Zurich, Geneva, Turin, Vancouver, Sao Paulo and Warsaw.

In 2007 Nikolay Alexeyev produced the documentary Moscow. Pride '06, which features the events around the first Moscow Gay Pride Festival from 25–28 May 2006. This documentary was included in the official programme of Berlin Film Festival in "Panorama" section in February 2007. Nikolay Alexeyev and film director Vladimir Ivanov have accumulated hundreds of hours of Russian LGBT events footage. The 2008 documentary film East/West - Sex & Politics, by director Jochen Hick, included in the official programme of Berlin Film Festival in "Panorama" section in February 2008, follows Alexeyev's attempts to organise the 2007 Moscow Gay Pride Festival.

Canadian award-winning documentary film by Bob Christie Beyond Gay: The Politics of Pride features the organisation of the third Moscow Pride in 2008 by Nikolay Alexeyev and his fellow activists. It also contains footage of Alexeyev's participation in the Gay Parade in Sao Paulo in May 2008 and images of his arrest during first Moscow Pride on 27 May 2006.

In June 2009 French TV channel France 4 aired the programme "Global Resistance" featuring 11 minutes report about the activities of Nikolay Alexeyev and his fellow activists from Russia and Belarus organizing first Slavic Gay Pride in Moscow on the day of the Eurovision Song Contest final on 16 May 2009.

2011 Australian documentary by Logan Mucha features the attempts to organize Slavic Gay Pride in Minsk, Belarus, in May 2010 and the role played by Nikolay Alexeyev.