Vladimir Putin said that Russian women should not feel compelled to refrain from sleeping with tourists.GETTY IMAGES
Russia President Vladimir Putin "dismissed calls for Russian women to refrain from sleeping with World Cup tourists," according to Will Stewart of the London DAILY MAIL. Putin's spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said, "As for Russian women, they can, perhaps, decide it on their own. They are the best women in whole world." He was responding to a sex ban call by Communist Party MP Tamara Pletnyova, who said that she "hoped women would not date visiting fans and get pregnant." But as "controversy raged" over Pletnyova's remarks, Kaliningrad Deputy PM Alexander Rolbinov "suggested local women should be open to sleeping with foreigners." Pletnyova warned that Russian women "could end up raising mixed-race children on their own," before referring to the "Children of the Olympics" after the Moscow 1980 Games. The term was used during the Soviet era to describe non-white children conceived at int'l events after relationships between Russian women and men from Africa, Latin America or Asia. Many of the children "faced discrimination." Rolbinov accused Pletnyova of "turning the clock back to Soviet times." He said, "It reminded me of a phrase during a televised conference between the USSR and America. When asked about sex, (a Russian woman) said that we do not have sex in the Soviet Union. But the heart wants what it wants. Love will surely come. And as for international marriages, in such families appear very beautiful children." Journalist and TV presenter Yelena Khanga accused Pletnyova of making "immoral" comments about mixed-race children. Khanga said, "In the Soviet Union, we had a policy of friendship between peoples" (DAILY MAIL, 6/14). REUTERS' Tom Balmforth reported Pletnyova said, "We must give birth to our children. These (mixed-race) kids suffer and have suffered since Soviet times. It's one thing if they're of the same race but quite another if they're of a different race. I'm not a nationalist, but nevertheless I know that children suffer." Another lawmaker, Alexander Sherin, said that foreign fans "could bring viruses to the World Cup and infect Russians." Sherin added that Russians "should be careful in their interactions with foreigners as they might try to circulate banned substances at the tournament" (REUTERS, 6/13).
