Post date: Aug 19, 2013 12:56:29 PM
Russian lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, who championed Russia's controversial anti-gay laws, launches an attack against British actor and writer Stephen Fry for his call to boycott the Sochi Olympics, calling Fry "a spit in the face of British psychiatry".
MOSCOW, RUSSIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) - Russian lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, who championed his country's controversial anti-gay laws, launched an attack against British actor and writerStephen Fry for his call to boycott the Sochi Olympics, calling Fry "a spit in the face of British psychiatry".
Stephen Fry, an openly gay British writer and television personality, published in the beginning of August an open letter to British Prime Minister David Cameron, IOC President Jacques Rogge and London Olympics head Sebastian Coecomparing the Sochi Games to the Nazi-run 1936 Berlin summer Olympics, which he said were a "stain on the Five Rings". Fry also called for a boycott of the Olympics in Sochi.Russian lawmaker Milonov said that Fry had no relation to the Olympic Game, adding that advice coming from a man with 'self-identification problems' could not be treated seriously.
"Judging by the latest role of Stephen Fry - unfortunately, I'm not his big fan - I watched his role, he was playing a big fat naked ass which was showing all its charming details in front of a woman in the Sherlock Holmes movie. So judging by his new line of character he has no relation to the Olympic Games. I don't think he's even able to run 100 metres," Milonov said.
In his latest film, Fry played Sherlock Holmes' brother in the Guy Ritchie's sequel, where the actor appears naked.
"Stephen Fry is a spit in the face of British psychiatry. This is a man who attempted suicide twice, including once on a movie set. This is a man who openly admits his problems with self-identification. In Russia we treat such people in the Christian way. If a man attempts suicide, then this man has a very serious mental disorder. And any medical textbook, or psychiatry textbook can find an answer. So if a person with such disorder writes something we need to treat it with some leniency at the end of the day," Milonov said.
The British actor met Milonov in March this year, at which time Fry compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Dobby the house elf - a character from the film "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets."
"Personally, I'm offended when a person with mental problems insults my president, whom I voted for by the way. Let him deal with his own prime minister," Milonov said.
"If a person tries to elegantly play the role of a fat, uhm uhm, ass in a movie about Sherlock Holmes it does not mean that this person can with the same elegance be an expert in our laws. He does not understand a thing in our laws. He is a showman, he is a man who is paid money for his work. You know, Russia is too big a country, too great a country with gigantic potential and the Russian cultural heritage to pay attention to some rude statements by Stephen Fry," Milonov said.
In January Russia's parliament backed a draft law banning "homosexual propaganda" in what critics see as an attempt to shore up support for PresidentVladimir Putin in the country's largely conservative society.
The controversial new legislation has become a political hot potato for next year's Sochi winter Olympics, when it will apply to athletes and spectators.
Homosexuality, punished with jail terms in the Soviet Union, was decriminalised inRussia in 1993, but much of the gay community remains underground as prejudice runs deep.