The independent Levada Center survey released on Thursday serves as the latest sociological evidence of increasing homophobia in the country.

An overwhelming majority of Russians believe it is 'reprehensible' for people of the same gender to have sex, a new poll says, charting growing intolerance towards same-sex relationships in the past 20 years.

In Thursday’s poll, 83 percent of respondents said it was “always reprehensible” or "almost always reprehensible” for two adults of the same gender to have sexual relations.

Previous surveys showed that the number of Russians against gay sex has progressively increased, from 68 percent in 1998 to 76 percent in 2008.

This year, only 8 percent of respondents said there was nothing objectionable about sexual relations between adults of the same gender.



Levada also found that while people under 31 years of age were much more tolerant of same-sex relations than older generations in 2008, that distinction has now disappeared.

The pollster also tracked a slight growth in intolerance towards extramarital affairs — 68 percent — and abortions — 35 percent — over the two decades.

Levada carried out the survey among 1,600 people in 48 Russian regions on Dec. 15-20.