Nikolay Alexeyev

Nikolay Alexandrovich Alexeyev (also spelled as Alekseyev, Alekseev, or Alexeev (Russian: Никола́й Алекса́ндрович Алексе́ев) born 23 December 1977) is a Russian former LGBT rights activist, lawyer and journalist.

On 21 October 2010, Alexeyev won the first ever case at the European Court of Human Rights on LGBT human rights violations in Russia. The Strasbourg-based court unanimously ruled that by banning three Moscow Prides in 2006, 2007 and 2008, Russia breached three articles of the European Convention on Human Rights. In January 2011, the Russian Government asked the Court to refer the case for re-consideration to the Grand Chamber. On 11 April 2011, five judges panel of the European Court dismissed Russia's appeal and the verdict on illegality of Moscow Pride bans came into force the same day.

From 2005, Alexeyev was known as the founder and chief organizer of Moscow Pride, which was met with extreme official hostility until its final banning in 2012. Together with the activists of his advocacy group GayRussia.Ru, Alexeyev attempted to organize a large number of public actions to defend the rights of sexual minorities in Russia. For five years, none of the LGBT public actions for which he and his fellow activists required the permission of the Russian authorities was allowed to take place. On 1 October 2010, he was for the first time ever authorized to organize a sanctioned picketing in Moscow with the aim to call for economic boycott of Swiss Air Lines due to its role in the arrest of Alexeyev at Moscow Domodedovo airport on 15 September 2010.

Following a series of antisemitic outbursts directed at western LGBT rights figures and institutions, Alexeyev permanently ended his activism in 2013. He was granted Swiss citizenship in 2016, and lives in Geneva with his husband.