Mayor Of Sochi Says There Are No Gays In City, Despite Its Gay Bars

In this Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013 photo Sohi's Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov poses with count-down clock in Sochi. One year from now Russia will be hosting the Winter Olympics at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, and these Games... In this Thursday, Jan. 31, 2013 photo Sohi's Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov poses with count-down clock in Sochi. One year from now Russia will be hosting the Winter Olympics at the Black Sea resort of Sochi, and these Games are being built with the hands of thousands migrant workers who are doing all the grunt work that Russians find too low-paid and physically demanding. In a hope to escape their impoverished countries and provide for their families, Central Asian migrants flock to Russia to live in crowded quarters and work long hours. (AP photo/Igor Yakunin) MORE LESS
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There are no gays in Sochi, according to the Russian city’s mayor.

Sochi mayor Anatoly Pakhomov told the BBC in a story published Sunday that gays would be welcome at the Winter Olympic games in the host city, but added that homosexuality is “not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live. We do not have them in our city.”

A reporter found evidence to the contrary. BBC Panorama’s John Sweeney visited a gay bar in Sochi the night before he interviewed Pakhomov.

When pressed about the presence of gays in the city, the mayor told BBC “I am not sure, but I don’t bloody know them.”

An opposition leader, Boris Nemtsov, also said there were multiple gay bars in the city and told the BBC that Pakhomov’s claim was laughable.

“As far as I know there are several gay clubs in Sochi,” he said. “How do they survive? Why they are not bankrupt?”

Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended the country’s anti-gay propaganda law ahead of the Olympic games, arguing that the law “does not hurt anyone.”

This post has been updated.

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