“Who works in this building?” Vladimir Putin requested the speaker on seeing the flag on the US embassy
Moscow:
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday mocked a rainbow LGBT pleasure flag hung from the US embassy in Moscow, suggesting it mirrored on the orientation of the diplomats.
During a televised video convention, a lawmaker instructed Putin that the US embassy had hung a rainbow flag on its facade for the primary time to have a good time Pride month in June.
“Who works in this building?” Putin requested the speaker, Senator Alexei Pushkov, to be instructed “Americans.”
“Let them celebrate. They’ve shown a certain something about the people who work there,” he added with a smile.
Putin on Friday signed amendments to the structure backed by a nationwide vote that embrace a clause on marriage being between a person and a lady, aimed toward stopping legalisation of homosexual unions.
The president mentioned Friday nonetheless that Russia doesn’t discriminate towards folks on the idea of sexual orientation.
He mentioned a legislation banning promotion of gay relationships to minors, which he signed in 2013 to a storm of worldwide condemnation aimed merely to forestall the “foisting” of such relationships on kids.
The legislation has been used as a pretext to ban homosexual pleasure occasions.
“Let a person grow up, become an adult and decide his own path himself. You just shouldn’t impose anything,” Putin insisted.
He mentioned that “those who attack us on this basis are just trying to break down an open door.”
A conservative politician who heads the Union of Women of Russia warned Putin that billboards had been utilizing rainbow imagery to promote ice-cream.
“It’s indirect but all the same it forces our children to get used to the colours, to the flag that everyone is hanging up, even on that embassy,” mentioned Yekaterina Lakhova.
US Ambassador to Moscow John Sullivan in a video on Twitter on June 25 mentioned “our embassy is displaying the rainbow flag in solidarity,” wishing Russians a “happy Pride.”
On June 27, he and ambassadors from 4 different nations together with Britain launched an announcement urging the Russian authorities to hold out its obligations to guard the rights of LGBT folks.
The British embassy in Moscow additionally flew a rainbow flag.
The flag on the US embassy, an imposing constructing on a significant highway, grew to become a goal for homophobic protests.
Members of Sorok Sorokov, a conservative Orthodox Christian group, videoed themselves trampling on a rainbow flag on the pavement in entrance of the constructing.
An Orthodox Church spokesman slammed the flag as disrespectful of Russians’ values.
Many nonetheless snapped selfies in entrance of the flag to sign their help for homosexual rights. “The pride flag on the US embassy has become a landmark,” wrote leisure web site Afisha.ru.
Russia decriminalised homosexuality in 1993.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is printed from a syndicated feed.)
PreetiJha 
Vaibhav Kapoor