UK's "Hunted" Doc Outlines Russia's Anti-Gay Torture Gangs

The program "Dispatches: Hunted" on the UK's Channel 4 News is tracking the actions of Russia's vigilante gangs, who roam the streets in packs looking for gays to torture, in what they call "going on safari." In a recent article The Guardian criticized the program for putting the filmed results online so that their victims identities become known, further endangering their lives.

The documentary shows footage of some of the thousands of attacks that have taken place across Russia since President Vladimir Putin's "anti-gay propaganda law" was passed. Among them are the public beatings of anti-gay activists, a man forced naked into a bath with a dildo before having a bottle of urine poured over him, and a man with a gun to his head being forced to rape himself with a bottle.

The film crew follows two groups, called Parents for Russia and Occupy Paedophilia, as they entrap gays in an apartment to mentally and physical torture them.

"I just consider them spiritually and morally ill. Even cattle don't engage in this," pronounces one representative priest, in the Guardian article. The participants are openly gleeful about the attacks, with one saying, "Homophobic Russia, they better get used to it."

Their taunting ("How do you all become gay? Do you just sit at home and decide to take it up the arse?") and mental torture (which, on account of the director's camera does not become physical this time) lasts an hour.

"We followed him out," says the voiceover, "to offer assistance and support." His suffering, of course, will continue once the film of his "interview," as the gang calls it, is posted.

Timor, who lives with his family live on the outskirts of St. Petersburg, and his friend Dimitri are shown headed off to protest a gay film festival. He and his friend laugh on the way about giving protestors soap and a rope, so they can kill themselves and cleanse the earth of their wickedness.

"Filth like them should not exist. It would be ideal if instead of making us push them out of Russia they could just take their own wretched lives themselves," say the men.

According to the blog Joe My God, the "show has been posted in full to YouTube, but not by the network so it will likely be yanked quickly. Watch this right now if you have the time."