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Russia: Lady Gaga Threatened With Arrest, $50K Fine For Speaking Out On Gay Rights

Lady Gaga said that her managers received a call threatening her with arrest or a $50,000 fine if she spoke out in support of the LGBT community on the St. Petersburg leg of her Born This Way Ball.

Vitaly Milonov, an ally of President Vladimir Putin and author of the city’s odious law banning so-called “gay propaganda,” accused the singer of breaking that law.

“We saw that in addition to music, songs and such, there were direct calls for 12-year-old citizens to support the LGBT community,” Milonov said, adding that “when people tell kids ‘you must support sexual minorities’, that can create a false equivalence for them between traditional and non-traditional relationships.”

Milonov planned to “contact prosecutors and the law enforcement agencies to carry out a thorough investigation of the situation.” Previously and unsuccessfully, he had attempted to bar people under 18 from attending Gaga’s show.

A ban similar to St. Petersburg’s is under consideration in the lower house of Parliament, though Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev apparently doesn’t find a national ban necessary. Lady Gaga tweeted her thanks to Medvedev last week over his ambiguous dismissal, which probably made things kind of awkward for everyone when that call came through.

Everyone, that is except Madonna, who already laughed in the face of a $10 million lawsuit from anti-gay activists for violating the St. Petersburg ban. So Madge will no doubt blast Gaga for trying to rip her off yet again. And with such an elaborate ploy, too. Getting the Prime Minister of Russia involved? Well-played, Lady. Well. Played.

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