Amsterdam Mayor speaks at gay anti-Putin rally

The Mayor has given a speech at a gay anti-Putin rally on Museumplein, this evening.

The demonstration was because of an official Russian open-air show, given to celebrate 400 years official relations between the Netherlands and Russia.
Russia recently adopted anti-gay legislation, prohibiting all forms of 'gay propaganda'.

The rally was just before the start of the show, on another part of Museumplein, so that a short march on the Russian stage could be set up, at the start of the show. The gay/lesbian demonstrators outnumbered the rest of the audience, and completely overtook the atmosphere of the event, with a lot of (rainbow) flags.

The Mayor (Mr Eberhard van der Laan) spoke to the demonstrators, referring to the fact that he stands in a long line of Amsterdam mayors who spoke out for gay and lesbian rights.
He called upon the Dutch government to initiate a state complaint against Russia for the European Court of Human Rights.

About 2,500 people attended the rally.