Russia has officially
outlawed all forms of protest for more than two months around the 2014 Winter
Olympics, which begin in less than six months in Sochi. President Vladimir
Putin signed an official decree, published in the official government
newspaper, that will ban all “gatherings, rallies,
demonstrations, marches, and pickets” that aren’t a part of Olympic
ceremonies from January 7, a month before the Olympics begin, until March 21, a
month and a half after they end.
The protest ban’s most
obvious effect will be to silence criticism on the Russian anti-gay law that
bans “homosexual propaganda.” The law sparked a rash of criticism from world
leaders like President Obama, LGBT activists, andathletes from around the world.
The International Olympic Committee’s lack of decisive action and the Russian
government’s insistence that it will enforce the law during the Games was
likely to draw even more criticism and potential protests during the Olympics.
Other human rights issues
may have drawn protests too. Human rights groups have criticized Russia’s treatment of migrant workers during Olympic construction
and the imprisonment or silencing of journalists who have written about abuses, and Russian citizens near Sochi are
unhappy about forced evictions that took place to seize land for stadium
construction.
Russia also may fear
protests around the cost of the Olympics, which are now expected to carry a
price tag exceeding $50 billion, enough to make Sochi the most expensive
Olympic Games — winter or summer — in history. Olympic and World Cup spending
costs played a role in the massive protests that swept Brazil during a tune-up
tournament this summer and those events and the global news coverage they
received are no doubt fresh in Russia’s mind.
LGBT activists have called
for turning the Sochi Olympics into the “gayest Olympics ever” in response to
Russia’s anti-gay law, but Putin’s decree, which also bans the entry of any
unauthorized vehicles into Sochi during the same time span, will only make that
harder. That may place an even larger importance on vocal or symbolic protests from athletes like those that took place at the Track and Field
World Championships last week when American runner Nick Symmonds publicly dedicated his silver medal to his LGBT friends and when Swedish high jumper Emma Green
Tregaro donned rainbow nail polish to protest the law.
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