The Miss Universe pageant will be missing one familiar face this year.

Andy Cohen will not be taking his regular post as cohost of the 2013 Miss Universe competition, which will be held on Nov. 9 at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow, Russia.

The Watch What Happens Live star told his friend and pageant cohost of the past two years, E! News' Giuliana Rancic, that he turned it down because "their discriminatory policies make it unsafe for the gays who live there

and gays coming to work or visit."

"The law is that anyone under suspicion of homosexuality can be arrested," he told Rancic, adding that he "didn't feel right as a gay man stepping foot into Russia."