Father Vsevolod told Interfax-Religion, responding to the words said by Russian President Vladimir Putin after the EU-Russia summit on his readiness to sign a law banning the adoption of Russian children by same-sex "families".

The priest believes Russia, "which has always wanted and been able to lead the world," can now tell the West it is capable of "reviving" the West and "make Europe Christian again, that is, go back to the ideals that once made Europe."

"Without them, Russia and Europe will not exist. Western civilization will not exist another fifty years without them. It's up to you, dear friends, to decide, you can't avoid making this choice," he said.

Fr. Vsevolod believes the wish of Russian parliamentarians, which has now been backed by the president, to prevent the adoption of Russian children by foreign same-sex couples, is "elementary manifestation of common sense."

Foreign adoption in a country that is going through a demographic crisis is "something deeply abnormal, immoral, and unnatural," he said. "Speaking about adoption by couples of perverts, reliable scientific data indicate that children raised by such couples get moral deviations much more frequently than do children raised by straight parents or even one parent," the priest said.

Considering that this step "is very clear to any normal person," Fr. Vsevolod, however, said that denial of adoption to same-sex couples is "only half of the way we are destined to go as a country, as a civilization."

"We should generally build relations with specific groups of elites and social groups based on their attitude to Christian or at least universal human morals, whose norms remain unchanged because God who gave them is unchanged," he said.

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Russia Passes anti-Gay propaganda law

Russia's lower house passed a law on Tuesday banning gay "propaganda", a measure that human rights groups say has already fuelled attacks on homosexuals as President Vladimir Putin pursues an increasingly conservative social agenda.

As parliament debated the bill, gay activists who had taken part in a "kissing protest" outside parliament to demonstrate against the law were harassed and pelted with eggs by anti-gay protesters, then about 20 of them were arrested.

The law bans the spreading of "propaganda for non-traditional sexual relations" to minors and sets heavy fines for violations. It passed with 436 votes in the 450-seat lower house, the Duma. One deputy abstained and no one voted against.

"Traditional sexual relations are relations between a man and a woman, which ... are a condition for the preservation and development of the multi-ethnic Russian people," lawmaker Yelena Mizulina told the chamber.

"It is precisely these relations that need special protection by the state," she said.

Critics say the bill - a nationwide version of laws already in place in several cities including Putin's hometown of St Petersburg - would in effect ban all gay rights rallies and could be used to prosecute anyone voicing support for homosexuals.

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