Putin: Gays are like pedophiles

Russia is not “going after” gays, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday, defending a ban on “propaganda of homosexuality” that has brought criticism from the West ahead of the Winter Olympics.

The Kremlin hopes the games, starting on Feb. 7 in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea, will showcase Russia’s modern face more than two decades after the Soviet Union collapsed.

Putin has identified himself closely with the $50-billion event.

But Russia last year upset the West and human rights activists by banning what it called the promotion of homosexuality among minors. Calls for a mass boycott of the games have failed, but the row has clouded the build-up to the event.

Critics say the law is discriminatory and part of a rolling back of human rights and democratic freedoms under Putin, who has taken a more conservative course on social issues since returning to the presidency in mid-2012. TRUNews