RUSSIA:Moscow's mayor Yuri Luzhkov has added to the stream of increasingly vocal criticism of gay lifestyles from central and east European politicians.
Mr Luzhkov (72), who has banned gay parades and previously described homosexuality as "Satanic", stood by his comments at an international meeting of big city mayors in London this week.Homosexual behaviour was "wrong and unusual", he insisted.
Polish president Lech Kaczynski made similar comments during a visit to Ireland last week.
The views of Mr Luzhkov and Mr Kaczynski are not isolated in eastern Europe, with the Russian orthodox church also highly vocal on the issue of homosexuality.
"Through the gay parade you promote some uncertain people and it becomes an invitation to acquire this quality of the sexual minorities," Mr Luzhkov said, defending his previous decision to ban gay marches in the city. Moscow city police broke up last year's demonstration when it went ahead in spite of the ban.
Gay sex was illegal in Russia until 1993, when offenders faced up to five years in prison. Now, there are some openly gay bars in central Moscow, with large posters of boy band lookalikes in their windows.
Mr Luzhkov already faces a legal action before the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg after Russian gay activists demanded he retract his recent comments and pay a token fine of 100 roubles. He has kept the city of Moscow under his own tight control for 12 years and is considered highly popular for his efforts to modernise the Russian capital.
He has built up and defended his own power base, independent of the Kremlin. His wife Yelena Baturina is the richest woman in Russia, mainly through her construction company and is worth an estimated €4.6 billion.