"Some fans of group sex say that it's better than one on one because, as with any collective work, you can skive off," he said in an interview with the Kremlin-controlled English-language TV channel RT on Thursday.

The remark came after a reporter sought comment on a 2008 protest orgy that included Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, one of three members of the band Pussy Riot, recently jailed for two years for hooliganism, the Telegraph reports.

"They performed group sex in a public place," Putin said. "It was, as they say, their affair; people have the right to do what they like as long as it doesn't break the law, but [doing it] in public, then the authorities should have paid attention to that."