Anti-gay 'vote Putin' video goes viral in Russia

A homophobic video urging Russians to re-elect President Vladimir Putin has gone viral less than a month before the country's election.

The video, which appeared on social media on Friday, tells voters that if Putin's rivals win they will take Russia into a "nightmare" future in which they are forced to co-habit with gay men.

The video stars well-known screen actors but it was unclear who published it.

It has had more than three million views on the Facebook page of pro-Kremlin political analyst Alexander Kazakov.

In it, a middle-aged man dreams of a future without Putin, who is expected to win a fourth term in the March 18 vote.
 

In one of them, the character sees a gay man sitting in his kitchen filing his nails and eating a banana suggestively.

One of Putin's election rivals, liberal candidate Ksenia Sobchak, has called for Russia to allow gay marriage -- an unlikely prospect in a socially conservative country.

Some observers have suggested that Sobchak's candidacy was part of a strategy to create a semblance of diversity in an election that Putin is all but certain to win.

She has denied being a "Kremlin project."

Sobchak spoke out against the video on Monday, condemning it as "vile".