After winning right to extend rule, Russia’s Vladimir Putin takes aim at next target: rainbows
- President mocks LGBT flag at US embassy with homophobic joke and tells allies to be on lookout for colourful symbol of gay rights
- Newly approved constitutional changes that could let Putin stay in power until 2036 include effectual ban on gay marriage
A day after Russians approved an effectual ban on gay marriage as part of sweeping amendments to the constitution, Vladimir Putin signalled to supporters it was open season on the rainbow.
The Russian president met the authors of the amendments on Friday and one of them, a former senator, appealed to him to take one step further and limit the use of rainbows in advertising.
“We should ensure those values we tried to put into the constitution are being observed,” Yekaterina Lakhova asked Putin in a televised videoconference. “You should give an instruction to Roskomnadzor”, the government communications regulator, she said.
Over the last decade or so, Putin has increasingly embraced conservative social issues in an appeal to his traditionalist electorate at home and sympathisers abroad. In 2013, he signed a law banning “gay propaganda” aimed at minors that was widely criticised as a blow to LGBT rights.
In addition to allowing Putin to rule potentially to 2036, the constitutional amendments approved this week covered a range of other topics, from a ban on giving up Russian territory to provisions shoring up traditional values like the one defining marriage as a union between a man and a woman.
Putin did not commit to a rainbow crackdown on Friday, but told his allies to be on the lookout for the colourful symbol of homosexual rights.