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A human rights group in Russia has released a report stating that anti-gay laws designed to “protect children” are in fact harming children.

Moscow Helsinki Group (MHG), the oldest human rights organisation in Russia, recently released the report on the situation of the country’s children.

It demonstrates that Russia’s passing of anti-gay laws, argued to “protect children,” contravenes the UN’s stance which states that countries must always act in the best interest of children.

In a statement, a MGH spokesperson said: “With formal recognition of international law, [the laws] denies one of the basic concepts of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child – the concept of the ‘best interests of the child,’ created to customise the decisions taken within the framework of national legal systems in the interests of the individual child.”

This statement comes in light of President Vladimir Putin’s recent defences of the notorious anti-gay propaganda legislation, where he claimed: “It’s not about imposing some sort of sanctions on homosexuality…It’s about protecting children from such information.”

However, MGH says that gay teens are being put at a greater risk over the increasing levels of homophobic violence in the country.

The organisation adds that Putin’s lawmakers are acting not in the interest of international law, but rather in the interest of “preserving Russian family values.”

Consequently, the group has urged putin to repeal the anti-gay “propaganda” law, as well as the law banning adoption from countries with equal marriage laws.

Last month, regarding the security of gay visitors to the Sochi Winter Olympics, Putin also said “One can feel calm and at ease…Just leave kids alone, please.”

Recently, a middle school in the Bryansk region of Russia became the first ever minor to be accused of breaking the country’s notorious anti-gay “propaganda” law.