Igor Kochetkov


Igor Victorovich Kochetkov is a Russian gay rights activist who heads the Russian LGBT Network.
Kochetkov has been active in the opposition to the 2013 Russian law that bans promotion of homosexuality to minors. He has blamed the law for legitimizing and increasing violence against gays.
In September 2013, Kochetkov along with other Russian human rights activists met with US President Barack Obama in St. Petersburg.
Along with Alexey Davydov he was named one of the world's 100 top thinkers in 2013 by the magazine Foreign Policy "for fighting Russia's state-sponsered homophobia".
Kochetkov was along with Frank Mugisha, Sunil Babu Pant and ILGA nominated for the 2014 Nobel Peace Prize by Norwegian Labour Parliamentarians Anette Trettebergstuen and Håkon Haugli.