Well what this is about right now, is that Putin has a serious problem. Oil is overing between $90 and $100 a barrel (+ or minute a few dollars), and has been for years. His budget, like Iran's and Venezuela's by the way, is structured to require $130 a barrel in order to not run a deficit. Now Russia has large capital reserves, but not so large it can use it to finance itself on a continuous basis in leui of greater revenue, which Russia can't extract via taxation either. And to make matters worse they have a rapidly aging, shrinking population, which makes State Pensions (and Russia has a lot of Pensioners) require more money paid for by fewer young people.
What's this amounting to? A fiscal trainwreck. That is, unless Russia cuts services and reigns in spending, which it is bitterly, but slowly doing. Oh and it's also doing this at a time, it had expected to make large scale defense and infrastucture investments as a bunch of Soviet Era vehicles and roads reach the end of their usable lifetime.
Now Putin has to run for reelection in 2018. That's just five years away, and he has to do it at a time where the situation gets LESS favorable to him. This is a particular problem for him, because one of Putin's core constituencies is actually Russian women and retired state male workers. Both will see smaller pension checks, but Putin needs them to win more than anything else. So he is using religion. He's turning himself into a religious conservative.
You know those ridiculous adventure photo-ops Putin goes on? They're actually targeted at middle aged Russian women who see the kind of manly-man that they want their daughters to marry. Add to that now Putin is a religious man. He has some God in his life and judges, you know, as God would want him. How could any middle aged Russian woman NOT want to vote for such a heroic figure?
It seems ridiculous, but that's his strategy. And its a pretty brilliant one too. Young people aren't exactly going to rise up against a tyrant their moms vote for. This anti-gay stuff is a direct result of Putin running out of other political tools to use. Anti-Yestlinism ran its course. Anti-Americanism is very old hat and doesnt work as well anymore. Anti-Chinese is too new. Putin, the Economic Magician ran its course. Social conservatism really makes a lot of sense for a man who wants to survive with support of a bloc that would, frankly, very much buy any politician that sold him that. And the Russian Orthodox Church, that spent most of the last century a persecuted pariah? They would be insane not to latch onto this opportunity. If they embrace Putin, they become part of the power structure, rather than one of its targets, which for them, is something very new.
Are they even allowed to do that? Arrest gay athletes from other countries just because they're gay?
I seriously doubt it.
What a bullshit. You do understand that it's 15 yo kids who make such videos? You do know how cruel they can be? There is nothing to be surprised. I've heard about someone making videos about "fighting pedofilia" but they were just bashing young guys who slept with old guys instead of doing it vice versa (really shows this guy from a good side, bullying young kids). Remember that it's vocal minority, and russia is not a barbaric country where you will be burned for your believes or lifestyle.
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And no athletes will be arrested if they follow that stupid law about gay propaganda. Seriously, why gay athletes should be worried about banned gay propaganda? They come here to play games, not to ensure that everyone knows that they are gay. No, really, how is this even possible? They will wear flags? Or custom uniform? Everyone will be dressed in same clothes instead of country flag, sponsors and name/lastname/number.
And when reporters will interview athletes, they just don't need to start conversation from "hello, my name is john and i'm gay.". If reported asked about your orientation, that's ok to answer, but remember that it's different country with different laws. Some things that OK in your country is illegal in others.
Last edited by Charge me Doctor; 2013-07-31 at 09:22 AM.
Originally Posted by Urban Dictionary
Many athletes make political stances on issues. The try to compete and win for those issues. Many Olympic athletes are openly gay and they compete not only to win their country medals but to also support the LGBT community.
Also I get that you're from Russia, and from what I've seen of your posts from other threads you really wan't to defend your country. That is fine, but you've also got to realize that you can only defend and deny something for so long until you come off as delusional or biased. Especially when there is loads of evidence that supports the attitude and actions you deny.
In other words, don't bullshit us.
I never understood how can people be proud of being backwards.
I wasn't expecting more from Russia though. A few hours in Dota 2 and you know with what kind of people you are dealing with. Anyone who is trying to find excuses for Russians is either a Russian or never lived in Eastern Europe.
Last edited by mmoc0f233d9eb1; 2013-07-31 at 10:08 AM.
That "torture" in the video doesn't happen just in Russia. If it did, there wouldn't be a shit ton of LGBT teens trying (and some succeeding) to kill themselves in the Western World (especially the US).
Numerous studies have shown that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth have a higher rate of suicide attempts than do heterosexual youth. The Suicide Prevention Resource Center synthesized these studies and estimated that between 30 and 40% of LGBT youth, depending on age and sex groups, have attempted suicide.
Russia is starting to look like a nice lace for me to live, if only they abolish socialism.... and go full capitalism- REAL capitalism/free market.
Ill praise Putin if he menages to do so, or will want to make it so.
I do not support physical violence but having one country with no gay parades and homopropaganda would be cool. Im fo friggen tired by this sht.
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Thats your opinion.
Win the medal count again? http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/oly...edals/tracker/
This law is to protect gay people, because police had enough with anti gay movement that did mess shit up every time there was a gay parade or something. So they just banned gay propaganda to avoid them being hurt by extremists who are plentiful in russia.
And it never occurred to you that some gays would rather get beaten up/die for the movement than have the world deny the existence and rights of them and all whom they represent and fight for? Nope, Putin and the Kremlin aren't doing this to protect gay activists, they're doing it to please the Orthodox Church and the massive amount of voters who agree with it.
Not because they're gay, but because many of them sort of want to show off. That'd be a sure arrest in any other case. But for Olympics i guess there'll be an exception. One and only time. Damn those olympics anyway, nobody needs them here, we could have spent money far better.
On Topic: Russia (as with every country in the world) can have any law that they like for any subject, and it's nobody's job to tell them to change or even force them too (I am looking at you, USA). Besides, and as with every other case where the US have forced "democracy" and "human rights", if that was the true purpose, they would do it differently in addition of fixing their country first.
With that settled:
I find the whole "we must win more olympic medals" extremely sad, but it surprises me the least, coming from people with no cultural background. The olympics are far from winning medals. The olympics have actually nothing to do with winning medals. To be honest, the olympics currently hosted shouldn't even be named olympics, but whatever.