The Eurovision Song Contest is being held in Moscow this weekend. Gay activists plan to hold a Slavic Pride march to coincide with the contest.

Moscow city officials have warned that they will break up the march.

There is a concern that the march might be targeted by anti-gay extremists. The British Foreign Office has released an advisory for travelers in Russia, warning of possible violence at the gay march this weekend.

During the 2007 march gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell was among those who were attacked by right-wing extremists. The German politician with the Greens, Volker Beck, was also assaulted and sustained facial injuries.

Nikolai Alexeyev, who runs the website Gay Russia, tries each year to get a permit for the peaceful gay and lesbian march, but he has run into official roadblocks.

Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, an Orthodox Christian, has described gay pride parades as "satanic" and routinely bans them.

Link here for an in-depth Spiegel online article on the events surrounding the upcoming Moscow march.

Photos beneath from earlier Moscow marches that were targeted by right-wing extremists.