The Olympic Games are considered the world’s foremost sporting competition with more than 200 nations participating. Despite the games being a sporting event, the Olympics often has politics at its core. Furthermore, the games are often used to showcase the host country’s efficiency and organisation as well as their national talent. However, often the worldwide media exposure highlights issues which are meant to be kept hidden.
The Sochi Winter Olympics is one such example: President Vladimir Putin wants to showcase to the international community a modern and progressive Russia; instead media attention has been split between sports coverage and the human rights abuses going on in Russia with regard to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights.
The lead-up to the Winter Olympics in Russia was overshadowed by President Putin’s regime’s tough anti-gay laws and the rise of extreme homophobia in the country. Russia created legislation criminalising “gay propaganda” which has fuelled the nation’s hatred of gays resulting in violence towards LGBT rights activists on numerous occasions.
Russian law states that it seeks to “protect the younger generation from the effects of homosexual propaganda”. It says the “promotion” of homosexuality, including giving the impression that gay relationships are normal, could harm children because they are not capable of critically assessing such information.
Observers believe the crackdown in Russia is largely for the benefit of a domestic audience, with Russian president Vladimir Putin trying to gain popular support among conservative Russians. In the aftermath of his return to power in 2012 President Putin faced widespread protests and the anti-gay propaganda law is one of many new measures seen as a way of securing the support of conservative Russians.
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon used a speech on the eve of the opening of the Sochi Olympics to turn the spotlight on Russia, calling for an end to all forms of discrimination: “We must all raise our voices against attacks on LGBT people. We must oppose the arrest, imprisonment and discriminatory restrictions they face.”
The international community is well aware of the increased crackdowns and the high levels of intolerance in Russia: Videos are shared on a daily basis on social network sites showing gay men being beaten in streets by gangs.
In recent days Russian protest band Pussy Riot was broken up and whipped in the streets by Cossacks in an attempt to further intimidate the LGBT community. Footage shows Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, who served prison sentences over a protest in a church against President Vladimir Putin, being attacked as they tried to perform a song.
Athletes have been warned not to make political statements during their time in Sochi as the IOC has been keen to broadcast the message that the games are a sporting event and not a political affair. Yet it is evident that the games are everything to do with politics. Russia is an authoritarian state and President Putin has showed on countless occasions his willingness to clamp down on anyone who voices an opinion against him and his policies. When you start arbitrarily arresting citizens simply because they have a banner reading “Discrimination is incompatible with the Olympic movement” you know that the affair is more a political statement than a sporting one.
Mr Putin’s return to the Presidency in 2012 has been marked by increasing crackdowns on political opposition and personal and press freedoms, so while there have been several reprieves ahead of the Games these are seen as unlikely to continue. Observers say his increased willingness to intervene in the internal politics of Russia’s near neighbours and oppose Western political goals in the Middle East signal his willingness to disregard international opinion.
So while the international community may condemn the crackdowns against the LGBT community it is unlikely that this will change Putin’s stance on gay rights. Alexander Lebedev, a high-profile anti-Putin Russian businessman recently said that: “Hosting the games here contradicts the basic principles of the Olympics, which is to cultivate tolerance.”
Photo Credits: www.nydailynews.com, www.sochi2014.com, www.hrw.org, www.ap.org