Marketplaces to be banned from selling goods with LGBT propaganda in Russia - MP Khinshtein

MOSCOW. Nov 23 (Interfax) - The ban on selling goods promoting LGBT will also apply to marketplaces, Russian State Duma Information Policy Committee head Alexander Khinshtein said.

"This amendment prohibits the sale of goods, including imported, containing information for the dissemination of which administrative or criminal liability is envisaged, therefore, it, of course, will apply to marketplaces, to computer e-commerce," Khinshtein told a plenary session of the State Duma on Wednesday.

"If we, for example, ban the sale of literature promoting non-traditional sexual relations in bookstores, but keep the possibility of buying them online, in that case our laws will be useless," he said.

Khinshtein said a board meeting with the industry has been held on this matter. "Clearly, business is a priori cautious about any changes because it requires readjustment, but in this case we need to decide what we place our priority on: superprofits or the interests of our people, our nation, protection of traditional values," he said.

The amendment was adopted on Wednesday during the second reading of a bill banning the propaganda of LGBT, pedophilia, and sex change signed by some 400 State Duma members.