In the wake of a scandal that led to the arrest of the mayor of Tambov, Russia the region's governor allegedly made a series of homophobic statements, including one that seemed to call for violence against gays, according to a May 16, 2008 interview by the national daily Komsomolskaya Pravda. Mayor Maxim Kosenkov was arrested and removed as mayor after he allegedly kidnapped his former lover. The fact that this exposed him as a homosexual appears to bother the region's governor, Oleg Betin, more than the alleged crime. During the interview, the governor reportedly said the following: "Tolerance? To hell with that! Gomiki [a pejorative for gays in Russian] need to be torn apart! Then scatter their pieces to the wind!" "I am against perversion," the governor stated, "The principles of Orthodoxy should be inviolate."

He also opined that the local and national media need to be "cleansed" of homosexuals and accused Mayor Kosenkov of surrounding himself with gays at city hall. Most of the people that the paper's correspondent interviewed on the street about the mayor and the scandal stated that he did a good job and that they didn't care about his sexual orientation.

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