An outspoken anti-gay Russian lawmaker is outraged that the Russian postal service has been allowing mail bearing Finnish stamps commemorating gay erotic artist Tom of Finland to be delivered and has declared them ‘gay propaganda’ in breach of Russia’s censorship laws.

St Peters lawmaker Vitaly Milonov, the co-author of his city’s ban on so-called ‘gay propaganda,’ one of the first such regional laws in Russia, wants Russia’s postal service to return-to-sender any mail bearing the stamps for breaching national laws banning positive depictions of LGBTI people in the public sphere.

The stamps were released by Finland’s national postal service in September to commemorate Finnish erotic artist Touko Laaksonen, AKA Tom of Finland, and have been the biggest selling stamps in Finland’s history – being pre-ordered by people in 178 countries.

There were reportedly lines around the block to buy them when they first went on sale in Finland and tens of thousands were pre-ordered around the world.