Russia has asserted that it takes a morally superior world-view to the West and is seeking to resist the tide of "non-traditional values".
Mr Putin, the Russian president, used his state-of-the-nation address to defend his government's increasingly conservative values.
Speaking as a worldwide protest movement grows against the Kremlin's anti-gay stance, Mr Putin upbraided the West for treating "good and evil" equally.
In his 70-minute televised speech from an ornate Kremlin hall, Mr Putin pledged to defend traditional family values, which he said were the foundation of Russia's greatness and a bulwark against "so-called tolerance - genderless and infertile."
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