A St. Petersburg court did not allow the reopening of a cafe closed due to a complaint from an “anti-gay activist”

The Kuibyshev Court of St. Petersburg extended the suspension of Zoom cafe, which was closed after a complaint by anti-gay activist Timur Bulatov. This was reported by "North-West. MBKh media, cafe owner Pavel Shteinluht.

“We were found guilty and decided to eliminate the identified violations, document it and return again,” he said.

In a conversation with Novaya Gazeta, Steinlucht clarified that he knew everything from the words of his lawyer, since he was not allowed to attend the meeting, explaining this by the coronavirus pandemic, due to which there could be one representative from each side. He noted that the court ordered that the violations be eliminated by November 30. That is, before this date, the management of the cafe must provide photos and documents proving that the violations have been eliminated, and then the court will allow the cafe to open.

Steinlucht said “North-West. MBKh media”, that the cafe has already suffered losses of more than 200 thousand rubles. He stated that this is a colossal amount now, when there are already many restrictions.

“The whole operation of our closing took place on Friday at about half past four. Since we are a catering company, we naturally made preparations, firstly, for the Friday evening service, which is quite active, and for the entire Saturday and Sunday, because suppliers do not carry on weekends. Due to the fact that later we were not really allowed to get into the premises, in fact, almost all the products that are perishable <...> died, ”Steinlucht told Novaya.

He also added that financial problems are connected with salaries. There are staff who receive a salary per month at a certain rate, therefore, the owner of the cafe must pay these employees for the days when the establishment did not work.

The cafe was closed after an inspection by Rospotrebnadzor, which took place due to Bulatov's complaint. The agency said that anti-epidemic measures were violated in the cafe. At the same time, Steinlucht said that on November 13, ten people came there, intentionally violating the social distance and not responding to the comments of the staff, after which Rospotrebnadzor employees appeared in the cafe.

The day before, in St. Petersburg, the police and Rospotrebnadzor, after a complaint from deputy Vitaly Milonov, disrupted the Side by Side LGBT festival in St. Petersburg and dispersed its participants with the use of force. The festival was decided to be held using the Zoom video service, and the cafe was not a venue for it.