Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he would welcome gay people to his county for the upcoming Winter Olympics, but warns them against influencing children.
The 61-year-old made his comments during a meeting with the volunteers for the Sochi Games, which will start next month.
"We do not have a ban on non-traditional sexual relationships," The Guardian quotes him as saying. "We have a ban on the propaganda of homosexuality and paedophilia.
"I want to underline this - propaganda among children. These are absolutely different things – a ban on something or a ban on the propaganda of that thing.
"We are not forbidding anything and nobody is being grabbed off the street, and there is no punishment for such kinds of relations. You can feel relaxed and calm [in Russia], but leave children alone, please."
According to a Russian law that came into force last year, gays cannot express their views on homosexuality to anyone underage.
Subhankar Mondal
