RIA Novosti Roundup - Gay rights protected; Torch relay; Russian Hockey

Sochi 2014: Russia Doesn't Infringe on Gay Rights - Kozak

Gay rights will not be infringed upon before, during or after the Sochi 2014 Winter Games, Russian Deputy Prime Minister and Olympic supervisor Dmitry Kozak insisted Wednesday.

Many Western activists have called for a boycott of the event after Russian President Vladimir Putin signed legislation banning the exposure of any "nontraditional sexual orientation" to minors in June.

But Kozak sought to calm fears that athletes arriving for the February 7-21 Games on the Black Sea would be affected.

"There will be no diminishing of rights based on sexual orientation at the Olympics, neither before nor after," Kozak said. "No one should have any concerns whatsoever. People can get on with their private lives, and spread their respective advantages and attraction among adults. The main thing is that this doesn't touch children," he added.

Confusion has arisen on how strictly Russia will choose to enforce the vaguely worded ban on promoting non-heterosexual lifestyles to minors during the Games. The IOC told R-Sport this month that it had received assurances at "the highest level" of the Russian government that Olympic athletes and visitors would not be affected.

However, Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko subsequently told R-Sport that anyone - athlete or otherwise - found to be "propagandizing" gay relationships in Sochi would be "held accountable."

While the law’s proponents argue that it is aimed at protecting children from harmful influences, critics allege that the move is part of a broader crackdown on Russia’s gay community.

Russia has come under international criticism, including from the European Court of Human Rights, for its treatment of gay people.

Sochi Torch Relay to Mark Russia's Natural Beauty, History

On its record-breaking journey across Russia’s vast territory, the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics torch relay will visit the remote, northwestern Plesetsk space center and the country’s largest power plant at the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam in south-central Siberia, organizing committee officials announced Wednesday.

Those are among the 11 natural, historic and cultural sites the organizing committee identified as pit stops on the torch relay’s 65,000-km route.

The relay loops through more than 2,900 towns in Russia’s 83 regions, spiraling out from Moscow on October 7 before heading to the Kamchatka Peninsula, down to Vladivostok and west toward Sochi through southern Siberia.

The organizing committee on Wednesday also announced stops at Yasnaya Polyana, the estate about 200 km south of Moscow where Leo Tolstoy wrote "War and Peace;" a kimberlite pipeline in the Sakha republic; the Buddhist Ivolginsky temple near Ulan-Ude in the Buryatia republic; the Curonian Spit, a sliver of sand dune shared by Russian Kaliningrad and Lithuania; the 9th-century Ryurikovo Fort in the Novgorod Region; Kizhi, an island settlement in Karelia dating back to the 15th century; the 16th-century Tobolsk Kremlin in Siberia’s Tyumen Region; and ski resorts at Sheregesh in the Keremevo Region and Dombay in the Karachay-Cherkess republic.

Kizhi and the Curonian Spit are designated UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Russian Hockey Women Aim to Avoid Olympic Drubbing - Player

Russia’s women’s hockey team faces a thrashing if it meets the United States at next year’s Winter Olympics, one of Russia’s top forwards told R-Sport Wednesday.

In a stark reminder of the chasms that separate the top women’s hockey teams from the rest, Alexandra Vafina says not only is a Russian victory not on the cards, the aim will be not to let in more than 10 goals.

When an unheralded US team upset the Soviet Union at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, New York, it was labeled the "Miracle on Ice," but any hopes of a Russian reversal next year in Sochi are a pipe dream.

The US and Canada dominate the women’s game and the margins of defeat can be vast - Russia was pounded 13-0 by the US at the last Olympics.

Should Russia run into the Americans again, "we can’t allow ourselves to let in more than 10 goals," Vafina said.

Despite that, "we’re setting a goal of reaching the final," she added. That would be a major breakthrough for Russia, which has never won an Olympic medal. The only non-North American team ever to reach an Olympic final was Sweden in 2006.

At the world championships in April, an 8-1 crushing at the hands of the Canadians ended the Russians' hopes of a place in the final, but they bounced back to beat Finland for the bronze. In Sochi, Russia starts with pool games against Germany, Japan and Sweden.

Russia’s women’s team has a star general manager in Alexei Yashin, who played 850 NHL games between 1993 and 2007. He has been an inspirational presence, Vafina said.

"Last season I wasn’t at all of the training camps, but the girls say he was working with the team the whole time, that he took part in the exercises, helped out and showed off various moves," she said.

The Winter Olympics are the first to be held in Russia and will run from February 7 through 23.

Stephen Fry: Ban Russian Olympics Over Putin’s Anti-Gay Policies

Film and television star Stephen Fry urged the British prime minister and the International Olympics Committee on Wednesday to impose an "absolute ban" on the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi for what he described as Russia’s persecution of gays.

Fry compared Russian President Vladimir Putin and the country’s recent anti-gay legislation to Adolf Hitler’s persecution of Jews in Nazi Germany.

"He is making scapegoats of gay people, just as Hitler did Jews," the British actor said in an open letter published on his website. Putin "cannot be allowed to get away with it."

In June, Putin signed a law banning the promotion of "non-traditional sexual relations" toward minors. The legislation's vague wording may enable individuals to be implicated for even telling children that gay people exist. Violators face fines of up to $30,000.

While the law’s proponents say it is aimed at protecting children from harmful influences, critics say it is part of a broader crackdown on Russia’s gay community.

In July, Putin signed a law prohibiting the adoption of Russian children by foreign same-sex couples. The legislation comes 20 years after homosexuality was decriminalized in Russia. A Stalinist-era law had punished homosexuality with up to five years in prison.

In his letter, Fry called on British Prime Minister David Cameron and the IOC to ban the Sochi Games, widely known as Putin’s pet project.

"An absolute ban on the Russian Winter Olympics of 2014 in Sochi is simply essential," Fry said. "At all costs, Putin cannot be seen to have the approval of the civilized world."

The anti-gay legislation has already attracted calls from activists around the world to boycott the Sochi Olympics.

An athlete found to be "propagandizing" gay relationships in Sochi would be "held accountable," Russian Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko said earlier this month.

But the IOC told the R-Sport news agency that it was unmoved by the minister's comments and said it still had faith in the "assurances from the highest level of government in Russia" that athletes and spectators would be exempt from the law.

Published by exclusive arrangement with Around the Rings’ Sochi 2014 media partner RIA-Novosti.

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