Before Vladimir Putin won Russia’s March 4 presidential election, authorities allowed people to protest peacefully. But in the days after Putin officially won the vote, riot police targeted demonstrators, beating and detaining them, even pulling some onto police buses by their legs and arms.

Protests took place in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Nizhny Novgorod. Police used rubber batons to break up one protest near the Kremlin, and media reports said a KommersantFM Radio correspondent was hit on the head by police  and hospitalized with a concussion.

Meanwhile, a damning anti-gay bill became law in St. Petersburg.

The bill imposes a fine on anyone engaging in “public activities to promote sodomy, lesbianism, bisexuality and transsexuality” that might be seen by minors.

The bill’s language is so vague that it could lead to a ban on displaying a rainbow flag or wearing a T-shirt with a gay-friendly logo or even on holding LGBT-themed rallies in the city.

The bill also bans propaganda promoting pedophilia – setting a dangerous president by insidiously linking the two unrelated issues of pedophilia and homosexuality.

Source: Human Rights Watch