Lady Gaga thanks Russian PM Medvedev

[December 08, 2012]  MOSCOW (AP) -- Lady Gaga has expressed "her gratitude" to Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev for opposing regional laws that make it a crime to provide minors with information about homosexuality.

The pop star tweeted Saturday that she thanks the former president for "not standing by your party's anti-gay propaganda law."

Gaga's tweet followed her arrival in St. Petersburg, one of the three Russian cities that have recently passed bills imposing fines of up to $150,000 for providing minors with information on homosexuality, which the laws term "homosexual propaganda."

Asked about the laws, Medvedev said in a televised interview Friday that "not all relations between people can be regulated by law."

Homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but homophobia remains strong, and gay rallies been dispersed by police and militant Orthodox activists.

[Associated Press]

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