Russia has mounted a diplomatic offensive against "gay propaganda," accusing the EU in a new report of trying to promote an "alien view of homosexuality and same-sex marriages as a norm of life."
Criticism of "the aggressive propaganda of homosexual love" is found in the new report on human rights in the EU published Tuesday by the Foreign Ministry.
The report, whose English translation refers to gays as "queers," slams Europe's "dissemination of their neo-liberal values as a universal lifestyle for all other members of the international community."
It also notes "a steady growth of xenophobia, racism, violent nationalism, chauvinism and neo-Nazism" in Europe.
Calling the situation in Europe "far from ideal," the Foreign Ministry also criticized the European Union for "serious human rights ailments" and high unemployment.
The annual report is the second of its kind by the Foreign Ministry, which has established its own ombudsman's office.
Russia has floundered in major international rights and freedoms surveys such as the Freedom of the World by the Washington D.C.-based Freedom House, which has ranked it "non-free" in every issue of its annual survey since 2004.
Moscow generated extensive backlash in the West when it passed a controversial law in June banning "the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations" among minors.
President Vladimir Putin, who signed the law, denied that gay rights are violated in Russia.
Material from The Moscow Times was used in this report.
Actor Chris Pine says the U.S. should have done more in the run-up to the Sochi Olympics to protest Russia's anti-gay legislation, which he calls "clearly awful, archaic, hostile nonsense."
"I think we should do more than just send gay Olympians there," the 33-year-old actor said in an interview while promoting his film "Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit." "What's happening there in terms of gay rights or the lack of it is extraordinary and awful."
Pine's character tries to thwart a terror attack on the U.S. that originates in Russia and takes on a powerful Russian tech magnate in his new movie, opening Friday.
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