A Russian man arrested for running a travel agency for gay clients has been found dead in Moscow, rights group OVD-Info said on Sunday, amid a crackdown on LGBTQ+ rights in Russia.

By: OVD-Info:Andrey Kotov, the director of the “Man Travel” agency, which monitors political arrests, was accused of “organizing and participating in extremist activities.”

OVD-Info said the investigator told Kotov's lawyer that his client committed suicide early Sunday morning while in pretrial detention and was found dead in his cell.

Before Kotov's death, independent media outlet Mediazona reported earlier this month that Kotov denied the charges and said in court that law enforcement officers beat him and gave him electric shocks during his arrest, although he did not resist.

More than a year ago, Russia's Supreme Court effectively banned any LGBTQ+ activism in a ruling that labeled the “international LGBT movement” as extremist Human Rights Watch, the court accused the “LGBT movement” of inciting social and religious discord. The move exposed anyone in the community or associated with it to prosecution and imprisonment, creating a climate of fear and intimidation.

The LGBTQ+ community in Russia has been under legal and public pressure for more than a decade, but not least since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in 2022. Russian leader Vladimir Putin claims the war is a proxy war with the West to destroy Russia and its “traditional family values”, pushing for the protection of LGBTQ+ rights.

last month, Putin signed the law a bill that would ban the adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries where gender transition is legal.

2022 legislation passed by the lower house of the Russian legislature, which bans so-called “promotion of non-traditional sexual relations” for both adults and minors.