"We don't have them in our town," Sochi mayor Anatoly Pakhomov recently said of gays - but two young men appear to contradict his determined statement.
It is almost 4am, and the two young men are kissing, touching, dancing, sweating and singing in Sochi's Mayak Cabaret.
Alexey enters the club on his own, and he does not know anyone there.
The friend he travelled to Sochi with to watch a few events at the Winter Olympics is asleep at the hotel.
"He stayed there and I told him I was going somewhere else, because he does not know I am a homosexual. Though maybe he is at a different nightclub!" the 26-year-old Russian told DPA with a laugh as he held a glass of vodka.
Alexey loves the bar. He smiles and is happy there, at a place where he has nothing to hide and can say without fear that he is gay.
"I think I'll never tell my parents," he says, surrounded by couples who move and touch passionately.
About 20 metres away, there is a stage where a show takes place. It starts right on time, at 1.30am, the time advertised on the poster at the entrance, which also mentions ticket prices: for men, 500 roubles ($US14 ($A15.69); for women, 1000 roubles.
The lights go out, the speakers are hushed and a film projector gets going. It shows a girl singing the Russian national anthem, but the video does not have white, red and blue Russian flags to reinforce that message. Instead, the rainbow flag that symbolises homosexuals around the world is to be seen.
Everyone at the bar stands up to sing the anthem. And, as soon as they are done, two drag queens, including Zaza Napoli, who is extremely well-known in Russia, come on stage for the night's first performance. Gloria Gaynor's I Will Survive shakes the place from the floor to a ceiling that holds dim lights.
It is hot. Alexey wipes sweat off his forehead and drinks a toast with vodka.
"For connection among countries," he says in an international setting where people have their flags painted on their faces.
Minors are not allowed into the Mayak Cabaret. If any of them sneaked in, most people in attendance could be punished for violating Russia's famous "anti-gay" law, which bans homosexual propaganda aimed at minors.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, precisely the man who took the Olympics to Sochi, signed that law last year. The Olympic Park is 30 kilometres away from the city, while the Mayak is in the city centre at the feet of the impressive Hyatt Hotel.
Alexey arrived in Sochi on Saturday, from his home town, Moscow. He planned to watch women's hockey and some Alpine events. His parents live in the capital too, and they have no idea of their son's double life.
"It's hard for me, but I have gone to see a psychologist and we decided that the best thing would be not to tell anyone," he says.
An employee at IKEA - "in the kitchen section, I love it," he says, - Alexey does not agree with Putin's law, but he does not hesitate when asked about Russia's constitution.
"It is more modern than in other countries, like Greece or Spain," says the young Russian, who wears a sweet-smelling grey jacket.
"The law has not changed my life. I still do my own thing, I do the same stuff. I think only one person has been arrested for that, so as long as they don't enforce it ..."
The show goes on at the Mayak, with the huge, impressive Black Sea barely 100 metres away. It is dark, and one can see the lights on sleeping ships.
At the bar, no one sleeps, but just in case things are pumped up a little more.
Wearing a jacket with the CCCP initials of the former Soviet Union, a showgirl sings Russian songs and walks by the tables where the international crowd drinks the night away.
Bartenders, dressed in leather T-shirts with sequin that show their belly buttons, can hardly keep up with their customers, but there is no stress. Everyone laughs.
The "Soviet" act is followed by a Latino moment. Shakira's She Wolf gets people off their seats, and the dance floor becomes full. Some women pretend to sharpen their nails to scratch.
The she-wolves give way to a Mexican ranchera song, and the crowd goes crazy with the chorus: "Ay, ay, ay, ay, ay, ay mi amor."
"The mayor is really wrong," says Alexey, to sum up an eventful night in Olympic Sochi.
