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A prominent LGBT rights campaigner has been found dead with multiple stab wounds and signs of strangulation in the Russian city of St Petersburg.

The body of a 41-year-old woman was found in bushes near her home in the city on Sunday, local police said.

Relatives and friends later named the victim as Yelena Grigoryeva, Russian news website Fontanka reports.

Ms Grigoryeva, who had reportedly received death threats, regularly campaigned for human rights in Russia.

In a post on Facebook on Monday, activist Dinar Idrisov said his friend Ms Grigoryeva had been "brutally killed near her home".

"She had recently been the victim of violence and death threats," he wrote, adding that she had filed several complaints with the police.

Police have not confirmed the reports of death threats and it is not clear if the attack was linked to her activism. A suspect has been detained in connection with her murder, according to Fontanka.

Along with campaigning for LGBT rights, Ms Grigoryeva also demonstrated against Russia's annexation of Ukraine's Crimea peninsula, the ill treatment of prisoners and a number of other human rights causes.

In January last year, Russian opposition activist Konstantin Sinitsyn, 53, was found dead near his home in St Petersburg after suffering head injuries. Police said the attack appeared to be a robbery.

Last August, dozens of LGBT rights activists were arrested during a banned protest in St Petersburg to promote the rights of sexual minorities.

In 2013, Russia passed legislation banning the spreading of what it described as gay propaganda.