Putin calls for a project to promote 'traditional Russian values' overseas

Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to Speaker of the State Duma, the Lower House of the Russian Parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin and Speaker of the Federation Council, the Upper House of the Russian Parliament, Valentina Matviyenko during their meeting at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, on Monday, Aug. 5, 2024. (Gavriil Grigorov, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP)

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday called for the government to develop a program for overseas promotion of “traditional Russian spiritual and moral values,” a theme that the Kremlin has increasingly sounded in recent years.

In an order published on the Kremlin website, Putin instructed officials responsible for national projects to allot an unspecified amount of money for a program called “Russia in the World.”

The program would be aimed toward “developing international youth cooperation and promoting traditional Russian spiritual and moral values ​​abroad,” the order said.

The order did not specify the values that would be promoted, but Russia has shown rising animosity toward Western social liberalism, particularly toward legitimizing nontraditional sexual relations and gender identity.

The Russian Supreme Court last year outlawed the so-called “international LGBT movement” as extremist. Some Russians since then have been jailed for short periods or fined for displaying rainbow-themed material.

Since the 2022 beginning of the conflict in Ukraine, Putin has publicly characterized the West as “satanic” and accused it of trying to undermine Russia by exporting liberal ideologies.