Acting Moscow Mayor Vladimir Resin on Wednesday dismissed reports that a gay pride march had been officially sanctioned for the first time in the Russian capital.

"I have not heard of this, I treat everyone equally, but in this case I do not support this," Resin told journalists.

Speculation began when Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov was sacked by President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday. Luzhkov had branded gay parades "Satanic" and vowed that they would never be permitted in the Russian capital.

Just a day after Luzhkov was fired, leading Russian gay activist Nikolai Alekseyev wrote in his blog that the Moscow authorities had sanctioned a picket by sexual minorities in front of an office of Swiss Air Lines in Moscow on October 1.

The protestors planned to call for a boycott of the air company following an incident on September 15 in the Domodedovo airport in Moscow, when Alekseyev was illegally detained by security officials.

MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti)