Did the IOC Just Ban Anti-Gay Countries from Hosting the Olympics?

This time last year we were constantly hearing of anti-gay abuses in Russia in the lead up to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.  We were likewise hearing a drumbeat of criticism for the International Olympic Committee's ("IOC") lack of sufficient balls to lay down the law to Vladimir Putin - just as was the case with the IOC in the lead up to Hitler's Olympic extravaganza in Berlin in 1936.  And sadly, anti-gay persecution continues in Russia.  But, now, the IOC has voted to Principle 6 to ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.  On its face, the wording of the newly adopted Principle would bar a country with anti-gay laws from hosting the Olympics. With a number of states in America still maintaining anti-gay sodomy statutes in their codes, perhaps this action will be a wake up call to these anti-gay states.  Here are details from Gay Star News:

The Olympics has taken a huge step forward in protecting gay rights.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved Proposal 14 of the Olympic Agenda 2020 to include non-discrimination with regard to sexual orientation in Principle 6 at a vote in Monaco today (8 December).

Principle 6 originally read: 'Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement.'

With sexual orientation included, it implies that countries with laws that actively discriminate against gay people will not be able to apply to host. It must be noted the IOC remains unclear whether this decision will affect any future bids.

It comes after several people were arrested during the Sochi Olympics earlier this year, held in the shadow of Russia's 'gay propaganda' laws.

It sends a clear message to future host cities that human rights violations, including those against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people, will not be tolerated,' said Andre Banks, co-founder and executive director of All Out.  'These new rules must prevent a replay of Sochi.'

The 2016 Summer Olympics will be held in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, and in Tokyo, Japan in 2020. The 2018 Winter Olympics will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The next host city to be decided will be the 2022 Games, with Almaty, Kazakhstan and Beijing, China as the only two candidates.

All of these host countries need to get on board and scrap any anti-gay laws that they have on their books.  Other international sports associations need to follow suit and any events scheduled in places like Russia need to be relocated to non-discriminatory countries.

 

Vladimir Putin: The Games Are Over and the Repression Returns

Prior to and throughout the 2014 Winter Games this blog looked at the parallels between the 1936 Summer Games in Hitler's Berlin and what was taking place in Sochi, Russia.  Again, I repeat that I have no problem with the Russian people who have been betrayed time and time again by foul, corrupt and murderous leaders, most recently since the 1917 revolutions.  Now, with the 2014 Winter Games over, like Hitler who intensified repression and murder after the end of the 1936 Summer Games, Vladimir Putin is clamping down and intensify repression.  Worse yet, like Hitler, he is using claims of ethnic ties and commonality to justify Russia's intrusion into Ukraine.  A main page editorial in the Washington Post looks at the renewed repression in Russia.  Here are highlights:

RUSSIAN PRESIDENT Vladi­mir Putin hoped to win the world’s respect with his staging of the Winter Olympics. But a ruler who does not respect his own people will never be truly respected. One day after the Olympics ended, Mr. Putin showed, with the sentencing of eight protesters in Moscow, that he fears his people more than he respects them.

The protesters took part in a demonstration at Bolotnaya Square on May 6, 2012, the day before Mr. Putin’s inauguration. They now face imprisonment for the crime of expressing their opinions. What is striking is that the objects of Mr. Putin’s repression this time are not leaders but ordinary people, selected from the demonstration apparently at random. As in Soviet times, the law is used in an arbitrary and capricious way.

[T]he sentencing of the Bolotnaya protesters carries a haunting reminder of past repression. On Aug. 25, 1968, days after the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia and the crushing of the Prague Spring, eight people dared to protest in Red Square. They were arrested, and most were tried and sentenced to prison.

What’s the difference between then and now? Today’s Russian Federation professes to uphold constitutional guarantees of human rights and dignity. The words are in Article 29 of the Russian constitution: “Everyone shall be guaranteed the freedom of ideas and speech.” It does not say that everyone shall agree with the president. It does not say that those who protest the president shall be imprisoned. But two decades after its adoption, that constitution is fraying under Mr. Putin’s rule.

There is no better way to understand the Bolotnaya sentences than with the words of Stella Anton, the mother of defendant Denis Lutskevich. Fighting tears on the courthouse steps, she told the New York Times, “Why did they sentence him? To frighten people, so that they won’t go to demonstrations, so that they won’t protest, to put them on their knees and so they’ll put up with everything that’s happening in the country.”

Again, the parallel's between Germany in the 1930's and Putin's Russia are frightening.  Putin calls protestors in Ukraine fascists but it is he and his horrible sycophants who are the fascists.  The Russian people deserve better.  I look forward to the day when Putin is deposed and hopefully gets what tyrants like him deserve.

  

A Member of Pussy Riot Condemns Putin

I have nothing but respect for the Russian people who sadly seem to have been fated to have been ruled by horrific rulers for much of the nation's history.   Nowadays, the rule of the Tsars looks almost benevolent compared to what is happening under Vladimir Putin (not to mention his Soviet predecessors) who seemingly sees himself as a new Tsar.  The man's ego is off the charts.  As is his ruthlessness - something that should come as no surprise given his KGB background.  A member of the band Pussy Riot has a column in the New York Times that looks at what is really happening in Russia beyond the faux image Putin has constructed in Sochi.  It is worth a full read.  Here are excerpts:

ON Feb. 7, the opening day of the Olympics, several people walked out onto Red Square in Moscow. When they attempted to sing the Russian national anthem, all were arrested and taken to the nearest police station. “We were holding small rainbow flags to show support for the L.G.B.T. community,” wrote my protester friend, who found herself taken into custody for the first time in her life.

The following day, the police arrested a group that had gathered in Manezhnaya Square, in Moscow. The arrests came immediately after about 60 people unfurled umbrellas in support of Russia’s only independent television channel, Dozhd. The channel was recently dropped by all major cable operators under pressure from the government, which appeared to have been exacting revenge for a viewer poll question it didn’t like.

This week in Sochi, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, another member of Pussy Riot, and I were detained three times and then, on Wednesday, assaulted by Cossack militiamen with whips and pepper spray. Mr. Putin will teach you how to love the motherland.

More than $50 billion was sunk into the construction of Olympic venues — giant, meaningless, alien objects whose purpose is to feed the ego of the country’s president, elevating him to the rank of a pharaoh or emperor. The host city of Sochi has essentially become a closed military facility. Access to the city is restricted and will remain so for another month after the Olympics end.

Environmentalists’ concerns about illegal construction, enabled by corrupt business dealings, are well founded. Mr. Putin has turned the wartime siege of Leningrad into a sacrosanct event, all while imposing a new siege on Sochi.

Can a pharaoh shut down a city, can he declare a blockade in time of peace? Yes, if he lives and rules in Russia. This is how Dozhd came to be denounced by the government — for posing a question about a siege during a siege.

The face of these Olympics is deceptive, as is the entire authoritarian regime. At first, the authorities do not strike out at you directly. Rather, they systematically force you to adopt the only stance they deem proper, which is to move passively, apolitically, through the entire chain of post-Soviet institutions, from primary school to the grave.

Nikolai Zabolotsky, a Russian avant-garde poet who was repressed under Stalin and spent eight years in exile, compared progressing through life’s stages to being transferred through the gulag’s series of transit prisons. The realities of the Stalin era made the voicing of a direct metaphor like this necessary, even at the cost of losing one’s freedom.

The reality of contemporary Russia, and Mr. Putin’s goal, is to kill such metaphors — by force, if necessary — and to kill the reflection, analysis and criticism they carry. The quasi-fascist direction of this regime over the past 13 years depends on this deadening of the intellect. For as soon as obliviousness ends, so does Mr. Putin’s power.

Those who are writing about the Olympics and who are currently present at the Games should not fall into this forgetfulness, because it is fatal. When you talk about the Olympics — whether you like it or not — you are talking about Russia. For this is a country where people are arrested for waving umbrellas and little flags, where they are sent to penal colonies, like the environmental activist Yevgeny Vitishko, for writing a slogan like “the forest is for everybody” on a governor’s fence, and where they may be sentenced to five or six years in prison for voicing their dissent against the status quo.

Because of their dissent, the most honest people in our country are currently in jail as defendants in the Bolotnaya Square case. They came to the Moscow square on May 6, 2012, to join a protest against fraud in the presidential elections, and they chanted, “Putin, get out!” They were beaten with truncheons by riot police officers, arrested, jailed and put on trial.

For the past year and a half, they have had to make repeated appearances in a kangaroo court, where, day after day, they are being silently tortured as part of Mr. Putin’s broader policy. On Feb. 5, they made their final pleas; their verdicts are due on Feb. 21.

This story is bigger than the Olympic venues, bigger even than the Olympics. This is a story about the real Russia of today. It exists, and the price of its existence is prison sentences for innocent people who speak out.

It should not be forgotten that aiding Putin in repression is the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church which throughout most of Russia's history has sided with tyrants and betrayed the Russian people as the Church leaders have pursued wealth and power.  

 

Putin’s Sochi and Hitler’s Berlin: Dictators and the Olympic Games.

Not to beat a dead horse, but it is important to keep remembering the parallels between Hitler's 1936 Berlin Games and Putin's 2014 Winter Games.  Both involve egomaniac dictators, both involve nations with heinous laws aimed at persecuting an unpopular minority, and both involve dictators who view violence as a means to an end - there own enhanced power.  A piece in The Daily Beast looks at the love affair that brutal dictators have with the Olympic Games.  A love afair that the IOC has always been only too willing to accommodate.  Here are highlights from the piece

Like Hitler’s 1936 games, Putin’s campaign to hold the Olympics in Sochi is all about adding to his personal glory, not any desire to better Russia.

Do not mistake the epic graft in Sochi as unusual or incidental. Corruption is the overriding principle of Putin’s 14 years in power and looting the Russian treasury and the Russian people is itself the goal. For all the foolish attempts to interpret Putin’s geopolitical strategy and personal ideology, the common denominator is always whether or not an action helps him maintain the cash flow that in turn enables him and his clique to stay in power.

Putin also wanted the Sochi Olympics to be his Peter the Great moment, the beloved Soviet summer resort town turned into an international jewel the way Saint Petersburg was built into an Imperial capital practically from scratch. It can even be said that, like Peter’s endeavor, Putin’s transformation of Sochi relied on a serf labor force.
This is the sort of delusion that sets in when a despot confuses himself with the state after too long in power. Absent the feedback mechanisms of a free media and real elections, he begins to believe his glory is the country’s glory, that what makes him happy also makes the people happy.

There is a distinction here between Sochi 2014 and the Summer Games in Moscow in 1980 and Beijing in 2008. In those cases, the authoritarian propaganda machine was in the service of promoting the achievements of a country and a system. They were dedicated to the greater glory of Communism, the Totalitarian State, the superiority of the system and the athletes it produced. Nobody remembers who presided over the 2008 Games in Beijing and only a few might recall Brezhnev in Moscow. Meanwhile, the chairman of the Russian Olympic Committee never appears on TV or anywhere else, nor does the director of the Sochi Games. No, this spectacle is clearly about the ambitions and hubris of one ubiquitous man, something it has in common with the Summer Games held in Berlin in 1936.

Of course the evil of the Nazis is beyond comparison. Of course no one can rival the murderous fiend Hitler became in the 1940s. Of course no one expects a new world war or an attempt to emulate the Holocaust. But summarily discarding the lessons of Hitler’s political rise, how he wielded power, and how he was ignored or abetted abroad is foolish and dangerous. In 1936, even Hitler was no Hitler. He was already viewed with suspicion by many inside and outside Germany, yes, but he stood beaming in that Berlin Olympic stadium and received accolades from world leaders and stiff-armed salutes from the world’s athletes. There is no doubt this triumph on the world stage emboldened the Nazis and strengthened their ambitions.

Intentionally or not, the Putin regime has followed the Berlin 1936 playbook quite closely for Sochi. There have been the same token concessions in response to international outcries over bigoted laws. A few prominent political prisoners were released right before the journalists arrived. Even the tone of the propaganda has a familiar ring, as brilliantly illustrated by the writer and journalist Viktor Shenderovich this week. He quoted a statement by Putin loyalist politician Vladimir Yakunin accusing the western media of anti-Russian hysteria and hostility and condemning these foreign critics for attempting to disrupt the Olympics. Shenderovich then revealed that half of the statement was actually by Karl Ritter von Halt, the organizer of the Berlin Games, only substituting “Russia” for “Germany” throughout. The transition was seamless.

The International Olympic Committee is an eager partner in all of this and also has a long and dark history. After the triumph of Berlin, for example, the next Games were planned for Tokyo and Rome. New IOC President Thomas Bach’s strained protests about how foreign leaders protesting Sochi are “inserting politics into sport” ignore that fact that selling a huge platform for propaganda and corruption to a dictatorship is also “playing politics.” By Bach’s dubious rationale, the IOC would award the Games to North Korea as long as the venues were adequate and the fees were paid promptly.

[T]he reporters will go home with their funny stories, all the rainbow logos will be taken down, and Russians will be left with the environmental disaster, the corruption and the repression, the debts, and the same crooks and thugs who created them all. The future is not bright for Sochi, unless you believe that misery loves company.

Russia is a beautiful and proud country with much to offer visitors and the world. My hope is that the world does not allow the voices of Russia’s dissidents, activists, and persecuted minorities to be drowned out by applause.

Watching how the Sochi Games came to be and Putin's ego and ambition again reminds us that those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.  The IOC and many of the big sponsors have clearly learned nothing.

International Olympic Committee Defends Arrests and Beatings of LGBT Activists

Proving yet again that the International Olympic Committee has learned absolutely nothing since it collaborated with Hitler's Nazi regime 78 years ago for the 1936 Berlin Summer Games, the International Olympic Committee has defended the arrests and beatings of LGBT activist in Russia, basically saying that citizens must obey the domestic laws of the host country.  As noted before, I hold the IOC in deep contempt and it has once again demonstrated its utter moral bankruptcy.  Let's not forget that Nazi atrocities done against Jews were done "acting in accordance with its [Germany's] laws."  This kind of defense of hate and violence is beyond disgusting.  BuzzFeed has details:

The International Olympic Committee has said Russia was acting in accordance with its laws when police detained 14 protesters in Moscow and St Petersburg on the day of the Olympic opening ceremonies. Some of those held in Moscow report being beaten while in police custody.

“We understand that the protesters were quickly released,” Emmanuelle Moreau, the IOC’s head of media relations, said in an email to BuzzFeed. “As in many countries in the world, in Russia, you need permission before staging a protest. We understand this was the reason that they were temporarily detained.”

Four LGBT activists were arrested Friday afternoon in St. Petersburg while taking a picture holding a banner that read, “Discrimination is incompatible with the Olympic Movement.” It was not even a real protest, said Anastasia Smirnova, one of those arrested, but rather intended as a private commemoration of the start of the games.

As the opening ceremonies began at 8 p.m. that evening, police descended on 10 LGBT activists in Moscow’s Red Square as they sang the national anthem while holding rainbow flags. Two Swedish nationals in the group were quickly released, but the rest were held for several hours during which some were reportedly kicked, choked, and threatened with sexual violence. 

The speed of the police response in both cases made organizers believe police may have been tapping their phones to monitor their movements.

The IOC needs a complete overhaul, starting with the sacking of its entire current governing board. 

Scores Arrested in Russia Before Olympic Opening Ceremony

Moscow - 2014

Just as Adolph Hitler and his thugs orchestrated opening ceremony pageantry for the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, so too is Vladimir Putin and his goons.  And just as Hitler's thugs arrested those who stood against his regimes agenda of hate and bigotry before the 1936 Summer Games, so too is Vladimir Putin.  As the New York Times, at least 60 individuals have been arrested in the lead up to today's opening ceremony.  Their crime?  Protesting against Russia's anti-gay laws and the green light Putin has given to anti-gay vigilante violence and other Russian atrocities against minorities.  I sincerely hope that worldwide viewers do not allow themselves to be duped by Putin's PR campaign.  I have no animous toward the Russian people - only their foul dictator and his corrupt and vile accomplices who are continuing a near century long tradition of brutalizing far too many of Russia's citizens.  Here are highlights from the Times article:

From St. Petersburg to the Caucasus, the authorities detained at least 61 people on Friday for holding unauthorized protests ahead of the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi. The detentions underscored the government’s efforts to stifle protests even far away from the Games.

The police swept up 37 people who gathered in Nalchik, the capital of the southern Caucasus republic of Kabardino-Balkaria, to draw attention to the historic grievances of the Circassians, whose homeland around Sochi was occupied by Russian imperial forces 150 years ago. In St. Petersburg, four gay-rights activists were arrested as they unfurled a banner quoting the Olympic Charter’s principle of nondiscrimination.

In Moscow, at least 19 people were arrested near Red Square during a smattering of protests calling for gay rights. Those detained included several foreign activists who gathered at a clock counting down the last minutes to the opening of the Games.

Yet another prominent opposition leader, Dmitri Berdnikov, the leader of a group that organizes protests against arbitrary prosecutions and court rulings, was detained at the airport in Kazan, in central Russia, as he prepared to board a flight.

“Human rights are generally violated in Russia,” said Polina Andrianova, a gay-rights activist in St. Petersburg, where the four demonstrators were arrested shortly after posing for a photograph near the State Hermitage Museum with a banner that read, “Discrimination is incompatible with the Olympic Movement. Principle 6. Olympic Charter.”

Among the four was Anastasia Smirnova, a spokeswoman for a coalition of gay-rights organizations in the city, who recently met with the president of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach, to draw attention to Russia’s policies toward homosexuality, including a law adopted last year prohibiting gay “propaganda” aimed at children. At least some of the protesters were later released, though they could face fines or other administrative punishment, according to All Out, an organization that held rallies in cities around the world this week.

In Sochi, Mr. Putin appeared to express frustration that protests over Russia’s policies threatened to overshadow the spectacle of the Games. The issue of gay rights came up again during a meeting with Prime Minister Mark Rutte of the Netherlands.

It is also important that we recognize that Putin and Russia do not have a monopoly on homophobia or animus toward minorities.  That same mindset is alive and well here in Virginia as evidenced by the GOP controlled House of Delegates action to kill every single pro-gay bill introduced this year.  

Hitler 1936

Putin 2014

Why Athletes in Sochi Must Speak Out About Russia's Intolerance.

Speaking out sometimes carries negative consequences.  But the alternative is, in my view, selling  your soul to the forces of darkness.  Former Minnesota Viking Chris Kluwe knows all about the negative side of advocacy having been fired he believes for his outspoken support for LGBT equality and same sex marriage.  At the end of the day, Kluwe can look at himself in the mirror with pride and know that his was never quiet and complicit in evil.  (On a far lesser scale I refused to remain closeted at work and lost my job when my law firm was acquired by a larger law firm.)  Now, Kluwe has an op-ed in The Guardian urging Olympic athletes in Sochi to refuse to remain silent.  Here are op-ed excerpts:

The Olympic Games in Sochi begin Friday. Controversy and doubt swirl around these games, this abysmal excuse of "Olympic Spirit" we seem determined to celebrate this year, despite all the hate and stupidity and human rights violations they represent. Vladimir Putin, dictator of Russia in all but name, appears content to ignore the lessons of history – namely, that you cannot oppress a group of your own citizenry forever without them eventually rising up against you. Unfortunately, the corporate sponsors of the games appear content to ignore it along with him.

"Today's refreshing anti-gay beating brought to you by Coca-Cola!"

"Visa goes everywhere you want to be, and takes you places you don't want to be, like a gulag in Siberia if you support LBGTQ rights!"

"GE, we don't just make your washers and dryers, we also wash our hands of the truth about bigotry and ignorance!"

The International Olympic Committee (IOC), chief benefactor of these big money sponsors, has determined that any athlete speaking out in "accredited areas" against the human rights violations occurring in Russia right now will be found in violation of the Olympic Charter, banned from the games, and stripped of any medals. Corporate sponsorships, the pot of gold at the end of the Olympic rainbow, will disappear. . . . politicized in no small part by the IOC refusing to uphold their own charter when it applies to themselves.
How can the IOC get away with this blatant disregard of their own rules? Easy. The IOC has what Olympic athletes want. Money. Power. Fame.

I've been famous. As a professional athlete, even as a lowly punter, it comes with the territory. . . . I've had money. Playing eight years in the NFL means I've made close to what a good doctor will make in his or her lifetime, and I've tried to be smart with it.
I had power, a platform. Rightly or wrongly, our society regards athletes as role models, people to look up to, to emulate. For most of my career, I didn't use my platform for much. I was content to stay silent and collect my paychecks. 

I talked about important issues with my friends and family, but I never really took it public.Then, one day, I decided to use my platform. I decided to speak up for those whose rights were being trampled, to actually use the position society gifted me to say something meaningful, something other than sports cliches.

I decided to stand up for those who needed help, because they asked me to, and because it was the right thing to do. I knew it could cost me my job, my career, and I didn't care (OK, I cared a little bit, but I did it anyway), because if I didn't speak up for someone when they asked me to, how could I expect the same in return?

The result? I lost my job, one of the most highly sought after jobs in the world, professional athlete in the NFL, for speaking out on LBGTQ rights.  . . . . but knowing how it would turn out, knowing the cost, I wouldn't do it any other way, not for all the gold in the world.
What is the true price of fame? The price of fame is what you risk when you have the platform. As an athlete, a role model for society, people listen to you. As an athlete, when you make a statement, that statement is heard, no matter what that statement is.

Speak up for LBGTQ rights, for human rights, for empathy? The world will pay attention, and take notice. Stay silent, keep your head down, count the money and endorsements? The world will pay attention, and take notice. Either way, you're the one who has to live with what you did or didn't do.

I hope that athletes speak out at Sochi on LBGTQ issues, even knowing the possible risks that await them.

I know that it's one of the hardest steps a person can take, and that there is no guarantee of a reward at the end, other than knowing you did the right thing at the right time with nothing to show for it but angry tweets and emails tempered by the messages of support and affection from those in whose lives you made a difference, those currently being abused by the oppressive and ignorant.

I will tell you this – I've been there, I've walked that path, and though it's a rocky, and frankly, terrifying one, know that there's no amount of money in the world that can buy a step there. There's no medal to hang around your neck that signals you did the right thing, no corporate endorsement to pay your bills and keep you secure in the future. If you walk that path, there are always consequences. But when you walk it, you do not walk alone. You may never know the people whose lives you change, but the change will happen nonetheless..

What is the true price of fame?   The price of fame is being a role model, whether you like it or not, and people are always watching.  The world is watching. The platform is yours.

A Spotlight on Mr. Putin’s Russia

With the 2014 Winter Games officially beginning today, it is timely to take a serious look at Vladimir Putin's Russia which behind the attempted glitz in Sochi is a country that is perhaps more repressive today than it was under the Tsars and where those supposedly governing for the benefit of the Russian people have taken corruption to levels not even dreamed of under Tsar Nicholas II and Tsarina Alexandra.  It is not a pretty picture and it is downright saddening that the Russian People have been once again betrayed by their rulers.  An editorial in the New York Times looks at Putin's Russia and it is not pretty.  Here are excerpts:

The Olympic Games that open in Sochi, Russia, on Friday are intended to be the fulfillment of President Vladimir Putin’s quest for prestige and power on the world stage. But the reality of Mr. Putin and the Russia he leads conflicts starkly with Olympic ideals and fundamental human rights. There is no way to ignore the dark side — the soul-crushing repression, the cruel new antigay and blasphemy laws and the corrupt legal system in which political dissidents are sentenced to lengthy terms on false charges.

Maria Alyokhina, 25, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 24, of Pussy Riot, the Russian punk band, are determined that the glossy celebration of the Olympics will not whitewash the reality of Mr. Putin’s Russia, which they know from experience. Charged with “hooliganism,” they were incarcerated for 21 months for performing an anti-Putin song on the altar of a Moscow cathedral that cast the Russian Orthodox Church as a tool of the state. 

Such political protest is not tolerated in a nation that is a long way from a democracy. In December, the women were freed under a new amnesty law that was an attempt by Mr. Putin to soften his authoritarian image before the Olympics. 

But if he thought releasing the two women from prison would silence them, he miscalculated badly. On Wednesday, they told The Times’s editorial board that their imprisonment, and the international support it rallied to their cause, had emboldened them. They plan to keep criticizing Mr. Putin — they were hilarious on Stephen Colbert’s show the night before — and working for prison and judicial reform. Their resolve and strength of character are inspiring. There is a lot of work to do . . . 

Ms. Alyokhina and Ms. Tolokonnikova have called for a boycott of the Olympics, or other protests, to pressure the government into freeing the defendants. The most important thing is that the world speak out now, while Mr. Putin is at the center of attention and presumably cares what it thinks.

More broadly, the Russian penal system is in desperate need of reform. The activists described conditions in which prisoners are cowed into “obedient slaves,” forced to work up to 20 hours a day, with food that is little better than refuse. Those who are considered troublemakers can be forced to stand outdoors for hours, regardless of the weather; prohibited from using the bathroom; or beaten.

The Olympics cannot but put a spotlight on the host country, and despite all efforts to create a more pleasant image of his state, Mr. Putin is facing a growing protest. On Wednesday, more than 200 prominent international authors, including Günter Grass, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood and Jonathan Franzen, published a letter denouncing the “chokehold” they said the new antigay and blasphemy laws place on freedom of expression.

Mr. Putin has unconstrained power to put anyone associated with Pussy Riot and thousands of other political activists in prison. But these women and those who share their commitment to freedom and justice are unlikely to be silenced, and they offer Russia a much better future.

The irony is that but for the Bolshevik revolution, Russia might be a far better place for its people today.  Before the revolution, Russia was industrializing and modernizing faster than any other country and, indeed, did not regain its 1913 industrial out put until the eve of World War II.  And let's not forget that perhaps as many as 14 million Russian died during the revolution and brutal civil was that followed.  The Russian people deserve far better than Vladimir Putin.

 

Budweiser Pulls Out Of Sochi Olympics

In what hopefully will become a trend Budweiser has decided at the last minute to pull all of its personnel out of Sochi citing fears for their safety.   Other media reports indicate that few foreign visitors have appeared in Sochi, so one can only hope that Vladimir Putin's ego drive Winter Games are a bust in terms of PR and allowing  Putin to preen in the limelight.  Huffington Post has details:

At the last minute, Budweiser has decided to pull out its employees from the Sochi Winter Olympics. The “King of Beers” will not host its usual Olympics beer blast, a huge party designed to promote its brand image worldwide.

According to a report at TMZ, “it’s all because the company is not comfortable with the situation in Russia.”

“A rep for Anheuser-Busch confirms to TMZ Sports … there will be no Club Bud in Sochi.”  TMZ adds, “we’ve seen an email from a Budweiser rep which says the company does not want its U.S.-based representatives in Sochi … and the message is clear — the terrorist threat is simply looming too large.”

A new CNN poll finds 57 percent of Americans think a terror attack at the Sochi Olympics, which begin tonight, is “likely.”

Putin's Sochi Olympics - Not Ready for Prime Time

Got to love the sign at this Sochi hotel: Please do not flush toilet paper down the toilet.  Put it in the bin.

There are times that I think Vladimir Putin sees himself as Russia's new Tsar and that the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi are an extension of his overweening ego. If such is the case, events so far would seem to indicate that the Sochi Games have the potential to make both Putin and Russia a laughing stock.  What do I refer to?  The debacle that is unfolding as journalists are arriving in Sochi and finding their hotel accommodations unfinished or in a horrific state without running, potable water and a list of defects that make the local Hotel 6 look like Paris' Plaza Athene in comparison.  The Washington Post looks at the reaction of journalists to their inferior accommodations.  Here are excerpts:

Amid continued debate over whether or not Sochi is prepared to host the 2014 Olympics (here are 15 alarming signs that Russia might not be ready) reporters from around the world are starting to check into local hotels — to their apparent grief. Some journalists arriving in Sochi are describing appalling conditions in the housing there, where only six of nine media hotels are ready for guests. Hotels are still under construction. Water, if it’s running, isn’t drinkable. One German photographer told the AP over the weekend that his hotel still had stray dogs and construction workers wandering in and out of rooms.

The disarray seems to contradict repeated promises from both Russian and Olympic officials that Sochi is ready for the games, despite terrorist threats, unfinished construction and concerns over human rights abuses in the country. The Sochi Olympics have also run way over budget — to a record $51 billion — which seems particularly remarkable when you consider that some of the work isn’t actually done. International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach has of course denied that, insisting both that the “stage is ready” and that many concerns, including those over safety and construction, are overblown. Meanwhile, Dmitry Chernyshenko, president of Sochi's Olympic organizing committee, had this Twitter exchange with a CNN producer who complained that only one of the network's 11 requested rooms was ready for them.

Here are a few tweets that build a picture:

Harry Reekie @HarryCNN  CNN booked 11 rooms in one @Sochi2014 media hotel five months ago. We have been here for a day and only one room is available. #cnnsochi

Shaun Walker @shaunwalker7 Follow I have a room! No heating or internet, but it has a (single) bed at least...

Stacy St. Clair @StacyStClair Follow My hotel has no water. If restored, the front desk says, "do not use on your face because it contains something very dangerous. . . . Also on the bright side: I just washed my face with Evian, like I'm a Kardashian or something.

 It seems Putin made a major mistake - he is so used to a government controlled news media that he forgot that the visiting foreign journalists will nor be easily silenced.  Say what you want about the Romanov dynasty, but in its last years Russia was at the pinnacle in the arts and they did know how to put on an opulent, well choreographed show for the populace and foreigners.

The reception of our hotel in #Sochi has no floor. But it does have this welcoming picture.

I continue to hope that there are no terror attacks and that everyone in Sochi remains safe.  That said, I hope the Games turn into a total humiliation for Putin.

Sochi Killing Stray Dogs Ahead of the Olympic Games

A stray dog and its puppy sit behind the railings in the middle of a highway outside Sochi, Russia. (Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP Photo)

There are already plenty of reasons to despise Vladimir Putin and his henchmen and sycophants who have organized the lead up to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russian - and the International Olympic Committee that awarded the Games to Sochi in the first place - but now we can add killing dogs to the list.  Obviously, it should come as little surprise that a regime that would declare de facto war on LGBT Russians and turn a blind eye towards violence against gays  would have no qualms whatsoever about killing as many stray dogs as possible before the Games commence on Friday.  I bear no grievance towards the Russian people per se, but I continue to hope that the Sochi Games turn into an unmitigated disaster for Putin.  Here are highlights from ABC News on the effort to kill dogs:

The city of Sochi has quietly hired a private company to kill as many of its stray dogs as possible ahead of the upcoming Winter Olympics, ABC News has learned. The city’s move came after it publicly backed off plans to do so last year amid outrage from animal rights groups.

The owner of the company, Alexei Sorokin, told ABC News by phone that he did not know how many dogs his company has culled so far and would not say when it was hired by the city of Sochi. He suggested the strays posed a threat to the games.  “Dogs must be taken off the streets even if that means putting them to sleep,” he added.

Sorokin said his company generally uses poisons and traps, but denied suggestions of animal cruelty. He said his company is the largest of its kind in Russia, but the practice of hunting stray dogs has become common throughout the country.

In Moscow, animal rights groups and pet owners have battled against so-called “dog hunters” — vigilantes who leave poison-laced meat in parks to kill off strays. The dog hunters say the strays are dangerous and have to be taken off the streets.

Sorokin also displayed a clear disdain for the strays.  “Let’s call things by their real name. These dogs are biological trash,” he said.

The homeless canines are a visible presence all around the city, as they are throughout Russia, where sterilization is not common and some owners simply abandon the animals in the street.

The mayor’s office did not respond to calls by ABC News seeking comment.

I guess in the minds of Putin gays are also "biological trash" that needs to be exterminated.  Putin and his thugs are truly miserable excuses for human beings.  I'd suggest that they are the true biological trash.

American Hypocrisy Over Russia’s Anti-Gay Laws

These states have anti-gay laws that aren't that different from Russia's http://thkpr.gs/1etn5ms

UPDATED:  I added the map above via Think Progress.  It goes without saying that most of these states are in the South.

I for one am a severe critic of Russia's anti-gay laws - as should anyone of believes in equality under the law not to mention freedom of religion and freedom of speech.  But there are many in America who do not believe in those principles and before America condemns Russia without reservation, America needs to put its own house in order and eliminate anti-gay laws on the books here are home.  A piece in the Washington Post written by two Yale law professors looks at anti-gay propaganda laws on the books here in America - and that doesn't even get into the issue of the lack of LGBT protections in states like Virginia.  State sanctioned homophobia remains alive and well in the United States.  Here are some column excerpts that underscore anti-gay extremism still on the books:

Controversy over a Russian law that prohibits advocacy of homosexuality threatens to overshadow athletic competition at the upcoming Sochi Olympics. Thoughtful world leaders, including President Obama, have criticized Russia for stigmatizing gay identity.

Many of these critics find it hard to believe that in 2014 a modern industrial government would have this kind of medieval language in its statutory code: 

●“Materials adopted by a local school board . . . shall . . . comply with state law and state board rules . . . prohibiting instruction . . . in the advocacy of homosexuality.”

●“Propaganda of homosexualism among minors is punishable by an administrative fine.”

●“No district shall include in its course of study instruction which: 1. Promotes a homosexual life-style. 2. Portrays homosexuality as a positive alternative life-style. 3. Suggests that some methods of sex are safe methods of homosexual sex.”

●“[I]nstruction relating to sexual education or sexually transmitted diseases should include . . . emphasis, provided in a factual manner and from a public health perspective, that homosexuality is not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public and that homosexual conduct is a criminal offense.”

Amid the rush to condemn Russia’s legislation, however, it is useful to recognize that only the second quoted provision comes from the Russian statute.  The other three come from statutes in the United States.

It is Utah that prohibits “the advocacy of homosexuality.” 

Arizona prohibits portrayals of homosexuality as a “positive alternative life-style” and has legislatively determined that it is inappropriate to even suggest to children that there are “safe methods of homosexual sex.”

 Alabama and Texas mandate that sex-education classes emphasize that homosexuality is “not a lifestyle acceptable to the general public.” Moreover, the Alabama and Texas statutes mandate that children be taught that “homosexual conduct is a criminal offense” even though criminalizing private, consensual homosexual conduct has been unconstitutional since 2003. 

Eight U.S. states, and several cities and counties, have some version of what we call “no promo homo” provisions. Before the United States condemns the Russian statute’s infringement of free speech and academic freedom, it should recognize that our own republican forms of government have repeatedly given rise to analogous restrictions.

The underlying ideology of these statutes is the same: Everybody should be heterosexual, and homosexuality is per se bad. This ideology has never rested on any kind of evidence that homosexuality is a bad “choice” that the state ought to discourage. 

Maybe Obama ought to send Olympic delegates Billie Jean King and Brian Boitano to Alabama and Texas. 

We offer that suggestion somewhat tongue-in-cheek, but there is an important lesson here. Sometimes the moral failings of others can help us see moral failings in ourselves. It was revulsion toward Nazi Germany’s eugenics policy that, in part, caused U.S. legislatures and courts to renounce state sterilization programs. Opposition to South African apartheid and the Soviet Union’s totalitarian regime generated greater national pressure for the Eisenhower administration and the Warren court to renounce apartheid in the American South. 

Putin’s inability to justify this law puts a spotlight on the inability of Utah, Texas, Arizona and other states to justify their gay-stigmatizing statutes. They should be repealed or challenged in court. Just as judges led the way against compulsory sterilization and racial-segregation laws, so they should subject anti-gay laws to critical scrutiny. 

As things stand, one could imagine Putin responding to U.S. criticism by saying: “You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye.”

America doesn't have a monopoly on hypocrisy, but it surely suffers from it on staggering levels.