Sergey Davydov, the mayor of the declared gay-free town of Svetogorsk in the Leningrad region, continues his efforts to close his settlement for any kinds of sexual minorities. Two gay activists were denied access to the town, four more who had succeeded to penetrate were kicked out, one journalist followed them. Now the mayor wants to remove the American flag waving near a hotel owned by International Paper corporation.
Our news about Svetogork’s crazy mayor Sergey Davidov, who told the press that the sleepy semi-closed frontier town near St. Petersburg would be gay free appeared to be just the first chapter in a seemingly long saga of the former military officer standing up against gays and other harmful kinds of «Western influence».
That first move, when the mayor won over cock-shaped candies, hit the news in Russia and attracted great attention. Six gay activists decided to visit the town and talk to Sergey Davydov for a reason we don’t know. Two of them were denied access as they didn’t have proper documents to enter the frontier town which you can come in only if you have a special permission, a travel passport with a valid visa or you live here. Four of the group came in and took a picture of themselves with a stele in the backdrop. Interestingly, that piece of the stele was painted in rainbow.
These four were also kicked out of the town as they violated the law by not coming to the frontier. You cannot stay here if you come in with a travel passport, this document only gives you a right to cross the town.
A Moscow journalist who arrived to talk to the mayor to write about his prominent recent actions was reported to the Federal Security Service (FSB) by locals and also was kicked out as he didn’t have proper documents.
All these moves could be seen as explainable as the national laws really don’t let people stay here for a long time without a permission. But what happened next seems to be another (and rather interesting) switch in the saga. The mayor ordered to demolish that «rainbow» stele and create a flowerbed on this site. In a few days the stele, that had been touched by gays ceased to exist, locals say.
The crazy mayor went on.
On March, 7 he saw that Russian flag near the entrance to the town’s hotel was turned upside down. He ordered to correct it and said in his comments with 47news.ru that didn’t like the presence of the American flag hanging nearby. The hotel belongs to the Svetogorsk pulp-and-paper plant owned by USA’s International Paper corporation.
Sergey Davydov was straightforward: «I don’t like this American flag. I’m fighting against it and I’m working to get rid of any American signs in the area».
Till this point, the saga was just a fun created by a crazy mayor of a little sleepy town, buth from now on the mayor may choose a wrong path. The International Paper are partners of Zingarevich brothers and co-owner of their Ilim Group, where former Russian President and acting Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev had been working until his career in Moscow. Mikhail Zingarevich bought a photo taken by Dmitry Medvedev in 2009 at a charity auction in St. Petersburg for a very large sum. In Russia, such things never happen for no special reason.
Does the crazy mayor have access to the Wikipedia?
