The world is just a few days away from witnessing the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics. This year, the games will be held in the Russian summer resort of Sochi.
Sochi, known as a longtime retreat for the Communist elite, will be hosting history’s most expensive Olympics, with a bill of $51 billion. Aside from the high cost of the Sochi Games, it has also been at the center of various debates and controversy, such scares of possible terrorist attacks, bombings in towns close to Sochi, the risk of insufficient amounts of snow in the subtropical Black Sea resort town, and most of all, the anti-gay legislation established by Russian law.
In June 2013 the Kremlin passed a law under which “the propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations in the presence of minors” is banned, laying out heavy penalties for those deemed to promote homosexuality to anyone under 18. This law unleashed a series of worldwide protests against Russia, Putin, and the Sochi Games in general.
The athletes of the Sochi games, some of which vehemently protested against the law, were left in unclear circumstances on what stance to take: staying quiet and respecting the host country, or standing their ground. It does not help that the law is particularly abstract, as it does not distinguish between acts that could be acceptable as expressions of opinions or those that could be considered an illegal protest. By creating such a broadly-written law, any support for the LGBT people could be criminalized. The U.S. Olympic Committee declined to take an official stance on the laws, saying that it would defer to the Olympic Charter, which bans political demonstrations by athletes and coaches at the Games.
What had started out as an opportunity for President Vladimir Putin to revitalize the image of Russia by hosting successful, scandal-free, and safe games soon proved to be a more challenging task than imagined. There have been numerous occasions to press for changes in Russia, starting from its support of the Assad regime to the Snowden scandal; but the West has too much to lose if it cuts ties with Russia—which means that it will not be boycotting the Sochi Games. Having said that, President Barack Obama has announced that neither he nor Vice President Joseph Biden will be in Sochi, and named a VIP “delegation” stocked with gay former athletes. The Sochi Games have become not only the most geopolitically charged games since the former USSR boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, but also the barometer for international politics of LGBT rights. In the meantime, the mayor of Sochi has stated that “there are no gay people in our town”.
In an attempt to stop international criticism, last December President Putin passed an amnesty for thousands of prisoners, including two members of the “oppositional art” band Pussy Riot and several Greenpeace activists, and released the Yeltsin-era oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky from the prison camp where he was held. These political moves have calmed the waters, but what will actually happen at the Sochi Games remains unclear; athletes have stated that they wish to protest the anti-homosexual law by wearing pins and painting their nails with rainbow colors.
The Sochi Games represent the golden opportunity for Putin to promote a modern and stable country, especially alongside the troubling situation of neighboring Ukraine, so as to attract more investment and tourism, and it is an opportunity that Russia cannot afford to waste.
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Video Wednesday: How the Sochi Games became the Most Geopolitically Charged Olympics
January 29, 2014
The world is just a few days away from witnessing the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics. This year, the games will be held in the Russian summer resort of Sochi.
Sochi, known as a longtime retreat for the Communist elite, will be hosting history’s most expensive Olympics, with a bill of $51 billion. Aside from the high cost of the Sochi Games, it has also been at the center of various debates and controversy, such scares of possible terrorist attacks, bombings in towns close to Sochi, the risk of insufficient amounts of snow in the subtropical Black Sea resort town, and most of all, the anti-gay legislation established by Russian law.
In June 2013 the Kremlin passed a law under which “the propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations in the presence of minors” is banned, laying out heavy penalties for those deemed to promote homosexuality to anyone under 18. This law unleashed a series of worldwide protests against Russia, Putin, and the Sochi Games in general.
The athletes of the Sochi games, some of which vehemently protested against the law, were left in unclear circumstances on what stance to take: staying quiet and respecting the host country, or standing their ground. It does not help that the law is particularly abstract, as it does not distinguish between acts that could be acceptable as expressions of opinions or those that could be considered an illegal protest. By creating such a broadly-written law, any support for the LGBT people could be criminalized. The U.S. Olympic Committee declined to take an official stance on the laws, saying that it would defer to the Olympic Charter, which bans political demonstrations by athletes and coaches at the Games.
What had started out as an opportunity for President Vladimir Putin to revitalize the image of Russia by hosting successful, scandal-free, and safe games soon proved to be a more challenging task than imagined. There have been numerous occasions to press for changes in Russia, starting from its support of the Assad regime to the Snowden scandal; but the West has too much to lose if it cuts ties with Russia—which means that it will not be boycotting the Sochi Games. Having said that, President Barack Obama has announced that neither he nor Vice President Joseph Biden will be in Sochi, and named a VIP “delegation” stocked with gay former athletes. The Sochi Games have become not only the most geopolitically charged games since the former USSR boycotted the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, but also the barometer for international politics of LGBT rights. In the meantime, the mayor of Sochi has stated that “there are no gay people in our town”.
In an attempt to stop international criticism, last December President Putin passed an amnesty for thousands of prisoners, including two members of the “oppositional art” band Pussy Riot and several Greenpeace activists, and released the Yeltsin-era oil oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky from the prison camp where he was held. These political moves have calmed the waters, but what will actually happen at the Sochi Games remains unclear; athletes have stated that they wish to protest the anti-homosexual law by wearing pins and painting their nails with rainbow colors.
The Sochi Games represent the golden opportunity for Putin to promote a modern and stable country, especially alongside the troubling situation of neighboring Ukraine, so as to attract more investment and tourism, and it is an opportunity that Russia cannot afford to waste.
