Nikolai Alekseev

Nikolay Alexeyev
Nikolay Alexeyev at the Moscow Pride Press Conference, 16 May 2008
Born	Nikolay Alexandrovich Alexeyev (1977-12-23) 23 December 1977 (age 39) Moscow, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Occupation	LGBT Rights Activist, Lawyer and Journalist

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

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 on Human Rights. 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 Alexeyev at Moscow Domodedovo airport on 15 September 2010.

Alexeyev is fluent in Russian and English and also has a grasp of French. His blog reports that since the year 2000 he visited 49 countries. He took part in Gay pride parades in different cities of the world: London, Paris, Zurich, Geneva, Turin, Vancouver, Sao Paulo and Warsaw.