I can get behind the main message of leaving children alone, and letting them decide for themselves when they’re old enough, and reasonable enough, to decide such weighty things for themselves. However, there is a subtle distortion coming from Putin’s view, which is the “respect the majority” aspect, as this is mob rule (also known as democracy). Some mystical sects viewed Jesus as a metaphor for the Divine Logos, also known as natural law or the law of reason, and it was reason, which all men have access to, that is what should rule our lives, and from submitting to reason, we are responsible enough to manage and direct our lives. Yes, a statistical minority should not dictate to the majority what is reasonable, but the majority should also not dictate what is reasonable to the minority; reason is the true ruler that dictates what is and is not reasonable.
I would also like to add that Putin (among others) are attacking the straw man of liberalism, and setting it up to fall as a failed experiment, pushing the notion that liberalism is the philosophy responsible for the mess that is multiculturalism, gender studies, and feminism, and not Marxism or any of its proxies. Liberalism, as put forth by Thomas Paine, John Locke, John Stuart Mill, and Frédéric Bastiat, is certainly not to blame for this, but the monstrosity known as cultural Marxism, which is Marxism copy/pasted into a cultural focus from an economic focus, is the cause. Blaming this on Western Liberalism is intentional, and plays into the international narrative that liberalism is outdated, and that the West needs a change. That’s been the goal of Marxism all along, to destroy Western Liberalism, and they’ve done it while pretending to be liberals, and doing immoral things while wearing the costume of liberalism, but progressives are nothing but illiberal—which is the inversion of liberalism and all it stands for.
