Special Report Two: Propaganda in the Real World: How Putin Will Help Finish Off the Olympic Movement

(Author's Note:  I will not be, for the most part, covering the Sochi Games on this blog.  Unless a violent incident (which many people I've talked to believes will happen) occurs during the Games, I have been asked to boycott them on the basis of Russian bigotry.  This story, and the Vanderbilt story, will remain on top for the balance of the Games.  Any stories which come up over the course of the Games on subjects other than the Games will go below them.  So the date stamp on these posts will move.)

I was asked to do this post a number of months ago.

It was in direct response to the first reports of GLBT human rights abuses, under the color of an absurd law in Russia that makes the distribution of “propaganda” promoting GLBT persons to be illegal in Vladimir Putin's nation.

Now, on the eve of what almost-certainly appears, on a myriad of levels, to be an overpriced, corrupt, dangerous Olympics that Russia certainly is not prepared for, the world needs to take a look at this idiocy and grow a set.

First, the law itself:

On June 29, 2013, the Russian legislature – the State Duma – passed without a dissenting vote a new law prohibiting the dissemination of materials promoting “non-traditional sexual relations” to minors.

This is clearly a broadside against a GLBT community in a nation which, outside the Muslim world, has few equals as to the hostility toward said community.

Foreigners can be jailed for up to 15 days, fined up to 100,000 rubles, and then tossed from Russia.

Then, some of the Russian backlash against world criticism of this garbage:

According to the Wikipedia page on the subject, Vitaly Mutko, the Sports Minister, states that international criticism of the law in the face of the Sochi Olympics is a Western invention.

Oh really, Mr. Mutko?

Really???

Let me lay some ground work here.

President Obama, in response to the growing international backlash against the law, though falling short of the needed response (As most athletes have said on the subject: The Show Must Go On, after all...), decided to add Billie Jean King, Brian Boitano, and Caitlin Cahow to the American Olympic contingent for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies in late 2013.

I would have to think, in 2014, that the only people who still do not believe that the Olympics are a major propaganda exercise for most (if not all) of the major-medal countries, as well as the hosts (Vladimir Putin is seen as the most controlling head of state over an Olympic Games in it's modern history.), simply choose not to pay attention to the reality of the Games since at least the summer of 1980, if not further.

The possible inclusion of Johnny Weir on the 2014 figure-skating team placed a further spotlight on the law, but Weir retired from competitive skating (*cough*So the show can go on unabated in Sochi?*cough*) in 2013, and will broadcast as an analyst for NBC during the Games.

These realities (and others) lead me to one conclusion: The entire US Olympic delegation, by the correct acceptance of GLBT athletes and broadcasters, is an illegality under Russian law. The Olympics are a propaganda exercise (though not always with the negative connotations of the word – which see Jesse Owens), and the power of GLBT athletes has been used as a promotional propaganda for both nation and community in the past (which see the likes of multiple gold-medal winner Greg Lougainis).

The participation of the United States in these Games should not stand – neither by this idiotic Russian Law (which several lawyers in this country indicate mirrors similar laws in eight states, including 2002 Olympic host Utah), nor of the myriad of GLBT people worldwide who live in constant fear for their lives, and that allowing these Games to remain in Russia may not only empower attacks on their own lives, but, in the worst-case scenario, lead to a replay of Munich in 1972.

I attended those Salt Lake City Games for the first week. Surprisingly, the only anti-gay rhetoric I heard or saw in the Mormon city was the Westboro Baptist Idiots on the rise toward the main temple on the day of the Opening Ceremonies.

With many ominous political storm clouds brewing over Russia, no such assurance exists in Sochi.

Not in a Russia where:

• An actor who ran for President of Russia, Ivan Okhlobystin, last year called for the extermination of all gays, Hitler-style.
  
• In case you think some of the reports of anti-gay violence are overstated, the Gawker blog and Human Rights Watch have this to show to you.
  
• In a continuance of a farcical meme which has polluted all discussion on the subject, Vladimir Putin likened gay conduct to pedophilia, less than a month before the Games.
  
• In 2012, before these laws were made national, one of the music industry's greatest supporters of the LGBT community, Madonna, was threatened with arrest under a preceding law in St. Petersburg, where she was on tour at the time. She still insisted on making supportive comments to the community.
  
• In more anti-Madonna news, it now appears that Madonna will be charged with violating her Russian visa by using her concerts to promote such propaganda. Lady Gaga faces the same fate. (Source: ABC News.)
  
• Several polls in Russia show that support for the national “anti-propaganda” law runs between 85-90%.
  
• The mayor of the host city, Anatoly Pakhomov, proudly declared last week that the city was completely eradicated of all gays – that the only gays who would be in Sochi for the Olympics would be the foreign athletes and such. (Which should then be followed by the immediate question of where the bodies were left...)
  
• Particularly ominous is this quote from Pakhomov: "Our hospitality will be extended to everyone who respects the laws of the Russian Federation and does not impose their habits on others," he said. (Hence, the assurances Putin has given to gay athletes is an absolute lie.)
  
• Among other things, the inclusion of GLBT members in the United States delegation (as well as a suicide bomber actually making it on an Olympic site a few weeks ago) has led to enough risk against the United States Olympic Team that the State Department has instructed the American team that they should not wear their uniforms outside of relevant Olympic competitions and events.
  
• The personal boycott of numerous Western leaders of these Games, including President Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron and French President Francois Hollande was roundly slammed by IOC President Thomas Bach as excessively political. (Yet Putin is attempting to politicize these Games at every turn to his benefit, and those of his insiders, perhaps at the cost of GLBT (and other) blood... Home-field advantage?)
  
• Just three days before the Sochi Games, CNN and other media sources report that two female members of the Austrian Olympic team have been threatened with kidnapping. This is the latest of a number of letters sent to a number of countries -- including the US delegation -- but it is not known who sent this one (all that is known is that it was written in German) or why.
  
• Forget about having any electronic privacy at these Games. NBC has already reported that everybody even using their cellphones anywhere in the Sochi area is hacked effectively the instant they start using them. Anyone even thinking of posting supportive material is probably going to get a visit – real quick.
  
• They are not ready to host these Games. Recent blog pictures posted to the Gizmodo blog indicate that the athletes' village is nowhere close to completion, three hotels which were built for the Games will never be completed, the plumbing in many of the facilities is a joke, several of the Olympic “Parks” are complete disgraces (including one named after Putin), and the Games are $40 billion over budget.
  

These, among other things, leave only one conclusion:

Something is going to happen in Sochi, Russia, in the next three weeks.

They are leaving the door wide open for an incident. And if it's an incident to basically harm, torture, or even kill a GLBT-community supporter or even athlete, it certainly will score points for Vladimir Putin, especially with a Russian public who supports his bigotry to the extent of about 85-90% of the population. It is no secret that Putin is using these Games for political gain, as well as embezzling billions of dollars to his supporters.

There is no way they can “test-run” any safety precautions for athlete, official, delegation, or spectator for the event. They have no chance. There is still believed to be a very strong possibility that at least one “Black Widow” is at large who could suicide-bomb the entire mess.

To me and to many I've talked to on the subject (including several who have reviewed this post before publication), it is effectively certain (whether we find out about it or not is another matter!) that someone, for their orientation or belief system, is going to pay a heavy price in Sochi, perhaps up to and including their life.

For that reason, I have been asked to, and I agree to as the official stance of this blog, simply decide not to take part unless such an incident occurs. Anyone who knows me knows that I take great pleasure poking holes in the five rings that constitute the circus which most any modern Olympic Games and exposing the farcical nature of anything I can find with respect to the Games. (If you doubt me, go back about 18 or so months on this blog to my coverage of the situation in London.) And I believe there will be many more holes to poke here.

That said, the problem here is simple: We've got probably the closest thing to a Cold War leader in Russia since the Berlin Wall fell. He's not afraid to rattle sabres, and he is openly looking at being belligerent. (For another example, there's talk Putin may be preparing to annex the Ukraine.) This, combined with this idiotic law (which can basically extend to anything – a person has been known to be fined for using the Internet in a manner in which the authorities determined was propaganda), turns what I called “Salt Lake City, with a Russian twist” into smatterings of the tragedy of Munich in 1972.

Even though we can only hope that a massive winner in these Games turns out to be more a Jesse Owens moment like Berlin in 1936, the world should not have taken this chance. As such, the Five-Ringed Circus will have to go on with other people documenting the farce. And if what I fear will happen happens, then I default back to the motto of the country of Chile:

“By reason or by force.”