Russian President Vladimir Putin is, once again, insisting that you’ve pegged him all wrong as a homophobe.

Despite the government and society’s horrific treatment of LGBTs and continuous efforts to strip them of basic human rights, Russian News Agency TASS claimed today that Putin “observes the rights of sexual minorities [but] chooses traditional family” instead.

“Russia recognizes and does not infringe on the rights of non-traditional sexual orientation,” he recently said at the state of the nation address, claiming any information to the contrary were “labels” given to Russia by other countries like the USA, which he says hypocritically still allows some states to punish “non-traditional sexual orientations” with certain anti-gay legislation.

The TASS report continues:

“A society, which cannot protect children, does not have future,” he said. The president said representatives of non-traditional sexual orientation do have their rights. “This is not the choice of our society, but those are people whose rights are not cut,” he said. “We are not punishing anyone,” he said adding all people, regardless of their orientations, have social and political rights. “But traditional family, healthy nation — those are our choices. One does not exclude the other, and one does not affect the other. I believe, a balanced approach like this is absolutely correct,” the president said in conclusion.

Amazing how a news agency will say anything you need when you own it.