Russian President Vladimir Putin in a major speech on Friday denounced the Western society as “outright Satanism” with "various supposed genders".
He said the West had turned away from “traditional” and “religious” values, asking the audience if they wanted their “children to be offered sex-change operations,” which he later said is common in the West.
“Let's answer some very simple questions for ourselves. I now want to return to what I said, I want to address all the citizens of the country - not only to those colleagues who are in the hall - to all the citizens of Russia: do we want to have, here, in our country, in Russia, parent number one, number two, number three instead of mom and dad - have they gone made out there? Do we really want perversions that lead to degradation and extinction to be imposed on children in our schools from the primary grades? To be drummed into them that there are various supposed genders besides women and men, and to be offered a sex change operation? Do we want all this for our country and our children? For us, all this is unacceptable, we have a different future, our own future,” the Russian leader said.
“Such a complete denial of man, the overthrow of faith and traditional values, the suppression of freedom acquiring the features of a "reverse religion" [the opposite of what the religion is] - outright Satanism. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus Christ, denouncing the false prophets, says: By their fruits you shall know them. And these poisonous fruits are already obvious to people - not only in our country, in all countries, including many people in the West itself,” Putin said.
The full text of Putin's speech is available here.
He was speaking at a ceremony to annex four regions of Ukraine following a series of votes Kyiv and the West have denounced as illegal, sham referendums. Putin said Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia would be merged into Russia.
Putin has aligned himself closely with the Orthodox Church - which strongly rejects same-sex relationships - and has embedded social conservatism into a narrative of Russian political and cultural revival that is now also being used to help justify the invasion of Ukraine.
He routinely slams Western liberalism, blasting so-called cancel culture and promotion of gay and transgender rights.
Last year he said “children being taught a boy can become a girl and vice versa” is monstrous and "a crime against humanity”.
