The Russian Orthodox Church where anti-gay lawmaker Vitaly Milonov
worships was fire-bombed on Sunday.
According to local media, two masked men threw a Molotov cocktail
at the Church of Holy Peter the Metropolitan Bishop of Moscow but
failed to break the window. Damage was limited to a scorched frame.
“We'll find them and destroy them,” Milonov pledged in a
tweet.
Milonov is the author of a St. Petersburg law that prohibits the
promotion of “gay propaganda” to minors. He encouraged the
federal government to pass a similar law. In June, Russian President
Vladimir Putin signed the legislation despite an international
outcry. Passage of the law has led to calls for a boycott of the
Winter Olympics to be held next year in Sochi.
RIA
Novosti reported on Monday that police are looking for the
suspects.
Citing the parody religion Pastafarianism or Flying Spaghetti
Monsterism, which rails against the teaching of intelligent design in
public schools, Milonov, 39, blamed the attack on weak morals in
Russia. Roughly six followers of the official religion in Russia on
Saturday marched through St. Petersburg wearing pasta strainers on
their heads.
“It's a sickly spirit permeating our society,” he told the
Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper. “First they wear pasta strainers
and then they torch churches.”