The Russians are not going to change their anti-gay laws: Putin is finding them too valuable a tool at home. I will be very surprised if the IOC does anything that smacks of having a spine. They're still sitting there with their heads in the clouds -- I mean, really, who thinks that a competition between national teams can possibly be "apolitical"? And the IOC doesn't have a great record of being pro-active on gay equality. More on the order of being dragged kicking and screaming into the fold. No government is going to do anything to precipitate a confrontation. Obama cancelling a summit with Putin is as close as anyone is going to get, and Obama has stronger reasons than the Games. As for the third-world countries, half of them are worse than Russia, this is their moment in the spotlight, and they see Russia (and China) as a useful counterweight to US influence.
And what's more worrisome than official government action if someone does in indulge in "propaganda" are the Russian far-right groups and religious nationalists -- they have no compunctions about violence, they don't care about causing an international incident, and they're operating with the government's tacit approval. (I won't say that they're getting their marching orders from Putin, but I wouldn't be surprised.) If some athlete is killed, then there might be a reaction that justifies the use of the word. More likely, there will be a sacrifice of some low-life street thug.
There will be repercussions for the games if some major sponsor pulls its support. That's what the IOC will notice, and that's all it will notice.
And in the meantime, we're getting breathless reports on the latest posturing by the Russian government, the IOC, and various national leaders and high-profile spokesmen.
You might infer from this that I'm disgusted. You would be right.
And what's more worrisome than official government action if someone does in indulge in "propaganda" are the Russian far-right groups and religious nationalists -- they have no compunctions about violence, they don't care about causing an international incident, and they're operating with the government's tacit approval. (I won't say that they're getting their marching orders from Putin, but I wouldn't be surprised.) If some athlete is killed, then there might be a reaction that justifies the use of the word. More likely, there will be a sacrifice of some low-life street thug.
There will be repercussions for the games if some major sponsor pulls its support. That's what the IOC will notice, and that's all it will notice.
And in the meantime, we're getting breathless reports on the latest posturing by the Russian government, the IOC, and various national leaders and high-profile spokesmen.
You might infer from this that I'm disgusted. You would be right.
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