In whats believed to be the largest gay rights protest in the UK capital in recent years. Almost one thousand people gathered in London on Saturday to protest against the human rights violations and sub-human treatment of LGBT people in Russia.

“Stephen Fry walked along the whole length of the protest like an ambassador, and everyone was cheering him,” said an eyewitness.  Fry has called for an all out boycott of the Sochi Winter Olympics.

“Just remember that what this is about is not a big abstract thing like the Olympic movement, or a big abstract thing like the nature of totalitarianism, it’s keeping in the head the lesbian being savagely raped and being told by the police go take a walk because it’s not a crime, it’s a corrective thing to make you straight. These things happen daily in Russia; the teenagers being humiliated by their friends, punched and kicked and forced into suicide at an enormous rate. That’s what we have to remember this is all about, it’s about allowing the gay people of Russia to grow up free and proud and happy and with the genuine sense of importance they deserve.“

Putin is the ‘Czar of Homophobia’,” said longtime veteran gay rights activist Peter Tatchell  “His regime has outlawed the public expression of LGBT identity and affection.”

A human rights campaigner who was at the demonstrations said that Saturday’s protest was just the beginning of a long fight for change.