Russia's Putin says marriage is purely between 'man and woman'

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday stressed that marriage is solely a heterosexual union and supported the idea of enshrining the notion in the country's updated constitution.

"A marriage is a union of a man and woman," he said at a meeting with a Kremlin-appointed committee discussing new amendments to the Russian constitution.

"This is the right idea and it should be supported. We need to only think about how to formulate it and where," he said after conservative lawmaker Olga Batalina said Russia's constitution should uphold "traditional family values." She claimed the family is under attack from attempts to introduce new terms like "parent number one" and "parent number two."