MOSCOW, January 10. /ITAR-TASS World Service/. An address by Euroset’s (the country’s biggest mobile phone retailer) creative director, actor Ivan Okhlobystin to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin with a suggestion of returning to the Criminal Code the article on sodomy will not be a reason for firing the actor, Komsomolskaya Pravda quotes Euroset’s CEO Alexander Malis as saying. Earlier information was that Ivan Okhlobystin may be fired.
“We do not judge people from the point of view of their sexual orientation,” the company’s top manager said. “For us, all people are equal.”
Malis added, Okhlobystin may be fired only if he began calling for force. The company, he continued as saying, was ready “to take risks,” as they are sure Okhlobystin had a right for his view.
In the letter addressed to Vladimir Putin, the actor, who is married and has six children, expressed concern about the fate of children, who may be affected by representatives of non-traditional sexual orientations. Okhlobystin wrote the law banning propaganda of homosexuality among children, which Russia adopted in 2013, was not effective.
Political analyst Stanislav Belkovsky said in an article published by Moskovsky Komsomolets, Okhlobystin’s objectives had been his own promotion and PR of the Euroset Company, since the company had been using for many years the actor’s face as its advertising image. The analyst is sure the global sensation, which emerged around Euroset, proves it was a pre-planned PR exercise.
Belkovsky is convinced “Russia would not have any responsibility for sodomy - at least because in that case a majority of the elite will face prison terms.”
The expert is sorry the actor had launched an irrelevant scandal on the eve of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
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