The gay laws that Putin has brought in seem to be about doing the minimum required to keep the Russian christian right happy while not actually making homosexuality illegal. I find this interesting, especially in light of Putin's many bare-chested photoshoots. I sometimes wonder if those laws might be partly a response to his advisers telling him that he was starting to get a bit of a gay following and that he needed to do something about it before the hardliners started suspecting his manliness.

I mean, really. - http://38.media.tumblr.com/880d58b9b6c9abf8ecc9fdbe4da497e0/...