Vladimir Putin has defended JK Rowling as he accused the West of "trying to cancel" Russia.
In a strange rant during a televised meeting with cultural figures, the Russian president also claimed that there was a campaign against Russian composers including Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff.
The Harry Potter author has been widely condemned for her comments and viewpoints surrounding transgendered people in recent years.
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In the bizarre address, Mr Putin said: "Today are trying to cancel a whole thousand-year culture - our people.
"They are banning Russian writers and books.
"They recently cancelled the children’s author, Joanne Rowling because she is an author of books — which sold hundreds of millions of copies around the world — but didn’t satisfy fans of so-called gender freedoms.”
He continued: "They are now trying to cancel our country. I'm talking about the progressive discrimination of everything to do with Russia."
He continued, saying that "cancel culture" was like the Nazis trying to burn books in the 1930s.
"We remember the footage when they were burning books," he said.
"It is impossible to imagine such a thing in our country and we are insured against this thanks to our culture.
"And it's inseparable for us from our motherland, from Russia, where there is no place for ethnic intolerance, where for centuries representatives from dozens of ethnic groups have been living together."
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