Anti-gay laws or not, Russians are statistically the most ardent consumers of anal sex pornography, according to a study by popular porn site PornHub.com.
The survey is based on traffic for the Canada-based PornHub, which currently ranks 75th on the list of the world's most popular websites, according to the Alexa.com Internet analysis site.
PornHub did not give any solid figures, saying only that "proportionally speaking, PornHub gets more requests for anal sex from Russia than any other country."
Russia edged out the U.S., Canada, Britain and China on anal-related searches, according to the study, first published last week.
PornHub also compared the U.S. with countries it had military conflicts with, and found that America also lost out in terms of anal-related queries to Afghanistan, Iraq and World War II foes Germany and Italy.
But Japan, Vietnam and both Koreas were less keen on anal sex than the U.S., the study said.
PornHub did not spell out the size of its Russia- or U.S.-based audiences. The website does not contain any Russian-language content.
Anal sex was more popular with non-gay PornHub users worldwide, backing up numerous studies that have showed this sexual practice is not very popular among men who have sex with men.
Russia gained a reputation as the global torchbearer for homophobia last year when it banned "homosexual propaganda" to minors.
Male homosexual activity, long associated with prison culture, was only decriminalized in Russia in 1993, though Soviet laws never banned lesbian sex.
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