Don’t go Russian in, ladies
On the eve of the World Cup, a Russian lawmaker urged the nation’s women to avoid sexual liaisons with foreigners of different races.
Tamara Pletnyova, a lawmaker in the Communist Party and head of a state congressional committee on children and family affairs, discouraged women from sleeping with foreigners visiting Moscow for the quadrennial international soccer tournament.
“There will be girls who meet men, and then they will give birth,” said Pletnyova, according to a translation by the Independent newspaper.
“Maybe they will get married, maybe they won’t. But the kids will suffer, just like they suffered
(in 1980),” she said during a radio interview.
The lawmaker was responding to a question from the radio host who mentioned children born out of wedlock following the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow, according to Reuters. “It is one thing if the parents are of the same race; quite another if they are of different races,” Pletnyova responded. “We should give birth to our own children.”
Pletnyova has been critical of female journalists who have accused a Russian politician of sexual harassment. The Kremlin responded to Pletnyova’s pronouncement by urging women to make their own choices.
“Russian women can probably manage their own affairs,” a spokesman for President Vladimir
Putin told reporters. “They are the best women in the world.”
ITCHING TO GO
Spain can’t wait to get the ball rolling and put its coaching woes in the past.
Nothing would be better than a win against European champion Portugal in its World Cup opener to start moving forward after some of the most chaotic days in the national team’s history.
Spain will have new coach
Fernando Hierro on the bench Friday after Julen Lopetegui was fired Wednesday for accepting the Real Madrid coaching job without advising the soccer federation in advance.
BLATTER SURFACES
Sepp Blatter hopes to attend the Portugal-Morocco game, and fulfil an invitation from Putin to attend the World Cup.
Blatter’s spokesman Thomas
Renggli says the former FIFA president plans to be in Moscow around June 20.
At Luzhniki Stadium that day, the fixture for Cristiano Ronaldo and Portugal is a “possible game to watch,” Renggli tells AP.
The 82-year-old Blatter has previously said his lawyers advised against travel from Switzerland since American and Swiss federal prosecutors unsealed investigations linked to FIFA in May 2015.
His final trip abroad as FIFA leader was to Russia in July 2015, for the World Cup qualifying program draw in Saint Petersburg where he shared a stage with
Putin.