Lower-level Russian parliamentarians unanimously passed a law Thursday that would ban the distribution of materials promoting homosexuality, pedophilia, and gender reassignment.
More than 300 representatives of the State Duma, including the chairman, authored the new law, which imposes heavy fines of up to 10 million rubles ($165,000) for violating the ban by promoting such propaganda using online channels, media, or in public. Foreign citizens and stateless persons who violate the law would also face expulsion from the Russian Federation.
Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin said the law would help protect the motherland’s traditions and values for her children and the future of Russia from the “darkness spread by the United States and European states.”
Volodin called the U.S. the “center of this sodom in the world” in response to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, who had allegedly proposed Russian representatives withdraw the draft law.
“There is no need to impose alien values on us,” Volodin said. “You destroyed yours — we’ll see how it all ends. But it’s definitely sad because this is sodom — there’s no other way to say it.”
via joemiller