Crime | Russia Homophobia Drove Russian Man's Savage Murder: Cops Attack follows ban on 'homosexual propaganda' By Matt Cantor Posted May 13, 2013 9:02 AM CDT Copied People walk past a monument during ceremonies marking the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, once known as Stalingrad, Saturday, Feb. 2, 2013. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool) Russian authorities seldom blame violence on homophobia, the New York Times notes, but police say it was behind the vicious murder of a 23-year-old man in Volgograd. A group of men were in a park drinking on Thursday when they heard the victim say he was gay, say investigators, per Radio Free Europe. What the men allegedly did next is horrific: bashed the man's skull with a rock to the point where his face was unrecognizable and sodomized him using bottles. He "died on the spot," according to police. Three men have been arrested; one was a former classmate of the victim. They face up to 15 years in prison. The crime, worries a top Russia gay-rights activist, "will be investigated as one caused by a trivial row, and the homophobic motive will gradually disappear from all the documents." The attack comes after Russia banned "homosexual propaganda." Read These Next Her blood isn't compatible with anyone else's. Rubio says the fate of Iran's conversion facility is what matters. Fan who taunted Ketel Marte's mom has been banned by MLB. NJ lifeguard survives after being impaled by an umbrella. Report an error