MOSCOW: The approval of gay marriage by parliaments in France and Britain harms the chances of citizens of those countries adopting Russian children, a senior Russian Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.

"The British and French parliaments have legalised same-sex marriages. This narrows the chances of the citizens of these countries adopting Russian children," the foreign ministry's human rights envoy Konstantin Dolgov wrote on Twitter.

The Russian parliament late last year caused an international outcry by agreeing a blanket ban on adoptions of Russian children by US families.

Some Russian officials have indicated support for taking the ban further and in the future only allowing Russian children to be adopted in Russia.