And that’s not a joke. That’s what he said. From the Washington Post:

President Vladimir Putin said Friday that gay people have nothing to fear in Russia as long as they leave children alone.

Putin met with a group of volunteers in the Olympic mountain venue at Krasnaya Polyana on Friday to wish them success at the Games. During a question-and-answer session, one volunteer asked him about Russia’s attitudes toward gays, a subject that has provoked worldwide controversy, and Putin offered what was apparently meant to be a reassuring answer for visitors to the Olympics.

“One can feel calm and at ease,” he said. “Just leave kids alone, please.”

That scummy piece of shit. What’s he got for the Jews? “Come on in. Just no killing kids for matzoh flour, thank you.”

News flash, Volodya: some straight men fail to “leave kids alone” – like Warren Jeffs for instance, like various Catholic bishops and priests for instance, like football coach Jerry Sandusky for instance.

In speaking to a room full of volunteers dressed in their Sochi warm-up gear, Putin attempted to put Russia on higher moral ground than other countries. Homosexuality is not a crime in Russia, as it was in the Soviet Union. Homosexuality was legalized in 1993. Police, he said, do not pluck gays off the street. In the United States, he asserted, some states impose criminal penalties for homosexual relations. Not Russia, he said. (In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that laws prohibiting gay sex were unconstitutional.)

…

Putin asserted that the idea of legalizing pedophilia has been discussed in some countries.

“There is nothing secret about it, look it up on the Internet and you’ll find it straightaway,” he said. “Parties have raised the issue with certain parliaments. So what, are we supposed to shuffle behind them like obedient dogs toward unknown consequences? We have our own traditions, our own culture, we treat all our partners with respect and ask for our traditions and our culture to be treated with respect as well.”

Ah yes the respect for traditions and cultures defense. You want us to respect your personal culture of homophobia, Mr Putin? Not going to happen.