by Chris Bodenner
More readers add to the discussion:
It seems to me the best way to put pressure on Putin is to put pressure on the corporate sponsors that make hosting the Olympics so lucrative. Most of these companies are headquartered in the gay-friendly West and make most of their profits there. I applaud those athletes that choose to risk the repercussions of speaking out, but it shouldn’t fall on them to call out their hosts. Rather, the companies that seek to boost their images by association with these tremendous athletes should be made to think twice about instead associating themselves with Putin’s thuggery and demagoguery. At the very least, they should make clear that they do not condone the anti-gay laws. Companies truly concerned should ensure that their sponsorship money doesn’t enrich the Russian kleptocrats that wrote the laws, and if that’s not possible, they should withdraw their sponsorship and dare their competitors to sell their souls instead.
Another reader:
You want Obama to challenge Putin? Easy. All he has to do is call a press conference and publicly condemn the anti-gay laws Russia is promulgating. I know Andrew is a fan of Reagan, so when he demanded that Gorbachev “tear down this wall” – even in the midst of an incredibly delicate peace process – it had more effect than all of our military spending. Why? Because the cause was so plain, so fortified by moral righteousness, that it was instantly recognizable by anyone that heard the speech. I think that the same is true here. Especially in the digital age. No matter what our athletes do in the Olympics, no matter what our foreign policy officials do in the background, nothing will so publicly shame and humiliate Putin as much as that. It’s the same as throwing the ball in his court, if you will. Yes, it could be described as reckless … but so was Reagan. Sometimes, reckless is all that works.
(Photo: Gold medalists Tatyana Firova and Kseniya Ryzhova of Russia kiss on the podium during the medal ceremony for the Women’s 4×400 relay during Day Eight of the 14th IAAF World Athletics Championships Moscow 2013 at Luzhniki Stadium on August 17. By Paul Gilham/Getty Images. More on the controversial kiss here.)
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