Kremlin says Russian women can sleep with whomever they want
June 14, 2018
The Kremlin on Thursday had to dismiss a suggestion from a senior lawmaker that Russian women should not engage in sexual activities with foreigners visiting for the World Cup. Seventy-year-old Tamara Pletnyova, who chairs the Duma's (parliament's) Family Affairs Committee, had earlier warned that there could be a generation of Russian women raising children "of another race."
Pletnyova's statement was quite a contrast to FIFA's long-running "say no to racism" campaign, the slogan that's written on World Cup visitors' identification cards.
Speaking to a local radio station, she said that she feared the World Cup would mean "there will be young women who meet someone and then give birth... I hope not."
"We should be giving birth to our own children," she added, referencing unsubstantiated claims that Moscow hosting the Olympics in 1980 led to a generation of children being abandoned by their non-Russian fathers.
Pletnyova further asserted that women also risked then entering into marriages that may take them away from their native land.
Peskov: Russian women can take care of themselves
Just a few hours later, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov issued a statement distancing the government from Pletnyova's statement.
Peskov said that "Russian women can probably manage their own affairs. They are the best women in the world."
es/msh (AFP, Reuters)