MOSCOW, Sept 25 (Reuters) – The Russian parliament on Wednesday gave its initial backing to legislation that would ban nationals from countries that allow people to change their gender from adopting Russian children, a move it said was essential to uphold “traditional values.” Russia itself last year introduced a ban on people legally or medically changing their gender, part of a widening crackdown on LGBT rights that has seen “LGBT propaganda” outlawed at a time when President Vladimir Putin is casting his country as a bastion of “traditional values” locked in an existential struggle with a morally decadent West.