ACTOR Stephen Fry has written a letter to David Cameron, Seb Coe and the IOC, adding his voice to growing calls for a boycott of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.

Campaigners say recent anti-gay legislation passed by the Russian government means the Games should be boycotted in the same way South Africa was subject to sporting sanctions over its apartheid laws.

The legislation, passed unaninously by Putin's government, means arrest and heavy fines for anyone deemed to be "propagandising non-traditional relationships" to those under 18.

It bans "spreading the information in order to form non-traditional sexual desires in children, describing such relations as attractive, promoting the distorted understanding of social equality of traditional and non-traditional relations and also unwanted solicitation of information that could provoke interest to such relations."

That is said to include pro-gay speech, same-sex couples holding hands, and the wearing of any kind of rainbow design.

Last month, the IOC said it would "work to ensure that the Games can take place without discrimination against athletes, officials, spectators and the media".

It said: "To that end, the IOC has received assurances from the highest level of government in Russia that the legislation will not affect those attending or taking part in the Games."

Last week Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko seemed to contradict this when he said “No one is banning a sportsman with a non-traditional sexual orientation from going to Sochi. But if he goes out onto the street and starts to make propaganda, then of course he will be brought to responsibility.

“As a sportsman, he should respect the law of a country. Come (to Sochi), but don’t get young people involved, don’t make propaganda. This is what we are talking about.”

Canada's gay speed skater Blake Skjellerup has said he does not support a boycott but will instead wear a rainbow pin while competing and trust the IOC to ensure he is not arrested. 

But in his letter, published on his site today, Stephen Fry recalls Hitler's anti-Jewish legislation passed before the Berlin Olympics and says: "The Olympic movement at that time paid precisely no attention to this evil and proceeded with the notorious Berlin Olympiad, which provided a stage for a gleeful Führer and only increased his status at home and abroad.

"It gave him confidence. All historians are agreed on that. What he did with that confidence we all know.

"Putin is eerily repeating this insane crime, only this time against LGBT Russians... An absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 on Sochi is simply essential.

"Stage them elsewhere in Utah, Lillyhammer, anywhere you like. At all costs Putin cannot be seen to have the approval of the civilised world.

"He is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews. He cannot be allowed to get away with it."