Elton John to address Russian anti-gay laws in Moscow concert Friday

Sir Elton John is to perform a concert in Moscow on Friday, at which he has vowed to raise the issue of Russia’s anti-gay law.

Sir Elton last month in a CNN interview that he wouldn’t be cancelling the performance in Moscow, despite the country’s anti-gay laws.

“I’m going to go – I’ve been going there since 1979 and I have had great times in Russia,” Sir Elton added: “What’s happening there is so awful. But I’ve been asked to go. People from the LGBT community over there have said please come. I don’t want to abandon them. I mean, if you don’t go, you know, you’re saying stick it.”

He said he would be cautious on stage, knowing that if he violated the country’s anti-gay law implemented in June, he could be thrown out, particularly if he was too strongly critical of President Putin.

To dispel speculation over whether the concert would be cancelled, the venue put a statement up on its website: “Despite the groundless rumours spread by the Internet and media that Elton John’s concerts in Russia could be cancelled, the organiser assures you that Elton John’s shows in Moscow and Kazan will go ahead as planned,” the Russian promoters, SAV Entertainment, said in a statement.

Sir Elton John and his civil partner David Furnish have been a couple since 1993, and have two sons together. They celebrated the arrival of 2-year-old Zachary in 2010, while their second son, Elijah, was born in January this year.

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