A Prison Death Highlights Russia’s LGBTQ Crackdown

The travel agency offered tours aimed solely at men, and that was enough to attract the attention of the police enforcing new Russian laws that restrict the rights of gay people.

One night in December, officers stormed the apartment of the agency’s owner and tied him up, he later told a court.

“Fifteen people came to my place at night,” said the owner, Andrei Kotov. “They were beating me in the face, kicking me and leaving bruises.” His comments were reported by Russian media and confirmed by his lawyer.

Mr. Kotov said the officers pressured him to “confess” that he was running a travel agency aimed at gay people, which he denied. The officers kept beating him, he said, and told him: “No trips for gays.”

A few weeks later, Mr. Kotov, then 48, was found dead in his prison cell. Prison officials told his mother that he cut himself with a razor, said his lawyer, Leysan Mannapova. The circumstances of his death could not be independently determined, and Russian officials did not respond to a request for comment.

Mr. Kotov’s death reflects an increasingly harsh crackdown in Russia on the rights of L.G.B.T.Q. people that has accelerated since the start of the war in Ukraine. President Vladimir V. Putin has portrayed the new restrictions — and the war — as part of a broader battle to maintain “Russian traditional values.”