Russian women warned: do not have sex with foreigners of another race

Moscow (dpa) - With hundreds of thousands of football fans coming to Russia for the World Cup, a senior official warns the local women to not have sex with foreigners of a different race. "These children suffer," Tamara Pletnyova, chairwoman of the parliamentary committee for family, children's and women's issues, said in an interview released Wednesday.
"Good if they're of one race. If they're of a different one, then that's it," Pletnyova told a popular talk radio station, Govorit Moskva (Moscow Speaks). Mixed-race children born to Russian mothers following the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow came to be called "children of the Olympics," the interviewer pointed out. The fathers leave and the children remain in Russia with the mothers, Pletnyova said.
"We should give birth to our own." "I would like people in our country to get married for love," she continued. "It doesn't matter what nationality, as long as they're citizens of Russia." Russian football has long struggled with allegations of racist behaviour among fans directed at foreign players. Incidents have included monkey noises and banana peels thrown onto the pitch.
Football's governing body, FIFA, is now putting additional pressure on Russia to prevent such incidents as the country hosts the sport's most prestigious tournament, which occurs every four years. FIFA fined the Russian Football Union 22,000 pounds (30,000 dollars) last month for racist chants by fans towards France players during a friendly match in St Petersburg, one of the host cities for the tournament.