Senior Russian lawmaker Tamara Pletnyova, a member of the Communist Party, has advised local women not to have sex with foreign men during the Russia 2018 World Cup.
"Will there be the girls that will meet (with men) and become pregnant? Maybe yes, maybe no, I hope. These children suffer and have suffered, even since Soviet times," Pletnyova, chairwoman of the Family, Women, and Children Affairs Committee, was quoted by radio station Govorit Moskva, as saying.
“We should give birth to our own children. I'm not a nationalist, but nonetheless. I know that the children suffer as well, and then they are abandoned and stay here with the mother," she said in comments published on Monday.
Pletnyova, speaking in the lower house of parliament, was apparently warning of a possible rise in the number of single mothers. She added that, even if Russian women get married to their foreign partners after giving birth, they could end up living abroad with their spouses and have no idea how to return home.
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"Then they come to me at the committee and cry that the child was taken away, removed, and so forth. I would like people to get married based on love in our country, regardless of which ethnicity, [to] Russian citizens who would build a good family, live in harmony, have children, and raise them," Pletnyova added.
The FIFA 2018 World Cup kicks off when hosts Russia take on Saudi Arabia at Luzhniki Stadium on Thursday. The month-long tournament will be held in 11 host cities across the country.