Translated material
Pastoral on the Volga
In Samara, the US citizen, Pastor Jim Malkuhi, was detained in the community center, according to the Russian LGBT network page. He met with believers of the LGBT community.
"Four broke into the premises, one of them introduced himself as a district police officer. There were two professional video cameras, a lot of people. Jim was taken to the police department of the Soviet district, supposedly to check the legality of its location in Russia." - The message says.
As Lawyer Oksana Berezovskaya later, representing the interests of the detainee, later reported , the Malkehs were taken to the Soviet District Court to consider the issue of deportation. The pastor is charged with a violation of the visa regime, since he gave lectures, having entered a tourist visa. Berezovskaya emphasized that he did not teach, but simply met with friends.
The court refused at the request of the defense to transfer the meeting to Monday. Malkuhi is sick with diabetes. However, he was not allowed to go to the hotel for medicine, and he feels bad.
As noted, Malkehi is not the first time meeting with Russian LGBT entrusting. Such a meeting is scheduled for Pastor on July 16 in Moscow.
Malkhi is a clergyman of the New Meetodist Church (Metropolitan Community Church). The first ceremony of the wedding of the same -sex couple was held by the MSU back in 1969.
Recently, in Russia, foreigners regularly detain foreigners under the pretext of violations of their stay in the country. So, in February, the court in Volgograd fined the founder of the American Center for Civil Initiatives Sharon Tennyson and her colleague Theodore Blays Blays Mcyntire for violating the visa regime . He also reduced the term of stay in Russia. According to the FMS, the Americans entered the territory of Russia on tourist visas. At the same time, they visited the regions of Russia and collected political and socio-economic information about the situation in the country.
Tennyson and Macyntair met with businessmen, held seminars, invited to internship in the United States and, according to the representative of the FMS, "in every possible way imposed American values."