普京警告西方不要企图摧毁俄罗斯的“传统价值观”
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday said attempts to destroy traditional values were "anti-democratic," in an apparent dig at the West which has slammed the Kremlin's crackdown on gay rights.
Putin has promoted a distinctly conservative agenda since coming to the Kremlin for a third term last year after huge protests against his 13-year rule.
In his annual state of the nation address on Thursday, the president hailed Russia as a country "with centuries-long experience not of so-called tolerance - genderless and fruitless - but common, organic life of different peoples."
He warned against attempts to revisit traditional norms and values espoused by the majority.
"Moral and ethical norms are being revisited today in many countries, national traditions and differences between nations and cultures are being erased," he said.
"Such destruction of traditional values from 'above' not only brings about negative consequences for (the) entire society but is also fundamentally anti-democratic" and "against the will of a majority of people."
Putin's government has come under heavy Western criticism for a law banning "propaganda of homosexuality" to minors and some activists have called for a boycott of the Winter Olympic Games Russia hosts in Sochi in February.
Putin has insisted that the rights of gays and lesbians are protected in Russia but also said homosexual unions do not produce offspring, a major problem for a country facing a demographic crisis.
"We know that more and more people in the world support our position on protection of traditional values" he said.
"Over the past years we've seen how attempts to impose an allegedly more progressive model of development on other countries in reality ended up in regression, barbarity and great blood," Putin added, referring to conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa.
