Organizers of the parade said they had notified municipal authorities of their intention to stage a march along the city's main thoroughfare, Nevsky Prospekt, May 26. Officials at City Hall, however, said they had not yet received any notification.
Last May, gay parades in St. Petersburg and Moscow took place despite authorities' refusal to give the go-ahead, but many of its participants were detained by police and attacked by neo-Nazi groups.
Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov has vowed to stop any attempt by homosexuals to march through the Russian capital, publicly branding gay pride parades a "satanic act."
Two gay rights activists filed a lawsuit against Luzhkov, demanding that he retract his remark and pay a nominal fine of 1,000 rubles ($39) in moral damages to each, but a Russian court refused to qualify the mayor's words as libel.
