Putin links gay people to paedophiles ahead of Games

Russian president Vladimir Putin has offered new assurances to gay athletes and fans attending the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics next month.

Yet he defended Russia’s anti-gay law by equating gay people with paedophiles and said Russia needs to “cleanse” itself of homosexuality if it wants to increase its birth rate.

Putin’s comments in an interview broadcast with Russian and foreign television stations showed the wide gulf between the perception of homosexuality in Russia versus the West.

A Russian law passed last year banning “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” among minors has caused an international outcry.

Putin refused to answer a question from the BBC on whether he believes that people are born gay or become gay. The Russian law, however, suggests that information about homosexuality can influence a child’s sexual orientation.

The law has led to growing animosity towards gay people in Russian society.

International worries about how gay people will be treated in Sochi have been met with assurances from Russian officials and Olympics organisers that there will be no discrimination in Sochi, and Putin reiterated that stance.

“There are no fears for people with this non-traditional orientation who plan to come to Sochi as guests or participants,” Putin declared.

He said the law was aimed at banning propaganda of homosexuality and paedophilia, suggesting gay people are more likely to abuse children.

Making another fav-ourite argument against homosexuality, Putin noted with pride that Russia saw more births than deaths last year for the first time in two decades. Population growth is vital for Russia’s development and “anything that gets in the way of that we should clean up”, he said, using a word usually reserved for military operations.

Putin accused the US of double standards in its criticism of Russia, pointing to laws that remain on the books in some US states classifying gay sex as a crime. The US Supreme Court, however, ruled in 2003 that such laws were unconstitutional.

Homosexuality was a crime in the former Soviet Union. It was decriminalised in Russia in 1993.