Russian lawmaker tells women to avoid sex with foreigners

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 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 the radio interview.

The lawmaker was responding to a question from the radio host who mentioned children born out of wedlock after the 1980 Olympics in Moscow, according to the Reuters news agency.

“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, including unwanted touching and attempts to grope and kiss them.

The Kremlin responded by urging women to make their own choices. “Russian women can probably manage their own affairs,” a spokesperson for President Vladimir Putin told reporters. “They are the best women in the world.”