A prominent Russian MP has been heavily criticised after urging women not to have sex with foreign men during the World Cup.

Communist Party MP Tamara Pletnyova told a Moscow Radio station that she was "not a nationalist" but believed Russian women should avoid sex with people "of a different race" because "their children suffer".
She was responding to a question about the "kids of the Olympics" - referencing the claim that there was a spike in births of mixed-race children in Russia after the 1980 Summer Olympics.

Ms Pletnyova said that these children were "abandoned" by their foreign fathers.

"It's not so bad if the fathers are of the same race," she said. "But if they are of a different race, then that's it.
"[The children] are abandoned, and they stay here with their mother. We should be giving birth to our children."