Mick Hartley

Not, perhaps, what the Russians were expecting when they won last year. For the first time in its history, is the Eurovision Song Contest at the cutting edge of social change?

Police in Russia have broken up a march by gay rights activists in Moscow, staged to coincide with the final of the Eurovision Song Contest.

Several dozen campaigners had gathered near a university in defiance of a ban and some were dragged away by police when they tried to shout slogans.

British gay rights activist, Peter Tatchell, was among those detained.

Earlier, a counter-demonstration by nationalist and religious groups was allowed to go ahead.

The gay rights group had been waving flags and chanting slogans demanding equal rights and condemning the treatment of gays and lesbians in Russia….

The Eurovision Song Contest traditionally has a large gay following and activists in Russia had seen its staging in Moscow as a great opportunity to highlight what they say is deep prejudice, says the BBC's Moscow correspondent, Richard Galpin.

There have been many attacks on members of the gay community – they also say they risk being sacked by their employers and being shunned by their families.

The Moscow mayor Yuri Luzkhov has described such gay parades as "satanic".

Anti-gay groups had threatened to take matters into their own hands if the police failed to stop the march.

It'd be nice to think that some of the performers would acknowledge what's been happening on the streets outside, but that'd probably be asking too much.