ST. PETERSBURG, August 13 - RAPSI. PMI, the company that organized Madonna's concert in St. Petersburg, plans to sue Vitaly Milonov, the drafter of the city's law aiming to restrict the promotion of homosexuality.
The company says Milonov's supporters illegally recorded Madonna's August 9 concert.
The concert in St. Petersburg was held as part of the singer's MDNA world tour. During the show Madonna asked the audience to be more friendly to the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.
In response, several St. Petersburg based NGO's filed a complaint with the police charging that the singer had violated the law prohibiting the promotion of homosexuality among children. The complaint included photos and videos of the show. Prior to Madonna's concert, Milonov said that members of various organizations would be at the show to monitor compliance with the morality regulation.
The St. Petersburg law banning the promotion of pedophilia and homosexuality among minors came into effect on March 30. Now any citizen who violates the law can be fined in St. Petersburg for administrative violations.
Pursuant to the law, any public statement aimed at promoting sodomy, lesbianism, bisexualism or transgender behavior among minors, is subject to an administrative fine of 5,000 rubles ($158) for individuals, 50,000 rubles ($1,578) for officials, and 250,000-500,000 rubles ($7,890-$15,778) for legal entities.