Christian TV network in Russia offers homosexuals one-way tickets out of the country

A Russian Orthodox Christian TV channel has offered to give one-way tickets to homosexuals to emigrate out of the country for good.

Tsargrad TV recently posted a video on social media websites encouraging gay people to compete for a one-way plane ticket overseas.

"Just recently, California - the most liberal state in the USA by the way - proposed to facilitate the granting of green cards to Russian perverts," said TV host Andrei Afanasyev, according to the BBC.

"The staff of Tsargrad TV support this initiative. Moreover, we are ready to pay for a one-way ticket to anyone who plans to emigrate in complete earnest, and can provide a medical certificate proving that they are sodomites or have other forms of perversion," he added.

A Russian sexologist noted that it was unlikely that anyone would be able to obtain the medical certificate required by the network because sexual orientation was not considered as a disease.

The video was posted on the Russian social network VK, which was the most popular website in the country. The post, which featured clips of LGBT marches abroad, has since garnered over 34,000 views.

The TV host insisted that the video was not intended to troll users. "This is not a joke. We really want you to return there, where you can openly submit to your sins," Afanasyev said.

Tsargrad TV, which also refers to itself as Constantinople, boasts of an audience of about a quarter of the Russian population. Its founder, Konstantin Malofeev, said he views the network as the equivalent of America's Fox News.

The channel, which was set up to promote Christian Orthodox values, has been known to criticize Western countries for "low morals" and has regularly used derogatory terms to refer to LGBT individuals.

Some have expressed interest in taking up the channel's offer, though it is unclear how serious they are.

"It looks like my winning ticket to get out of this frigging country. What should I submit?" one user reportedly asked.

The video drew criticisms from a large majority of people responding to the video, with some calling the channel's staff "savages" and vowing to block it from their feeds.

The Russian church has been one of the harshest critics of the LGBT movement, with its highest cleric comparing gay marriage to Nazism over a month ago.

Activists have called on Western nations to grant asylum to Russian homosexuals in greater numbers following reports that gay men are being secretly and systematically imprisoned in Chechnya.