R
Ridgerunner
Guest
Hard to know what all Putin will do to put a good face on the Olympics. But one has to remember that, while he tried mightily, even Stalin couldn’t round up all the “street kids” in his time. He had more camps than Putin ever even imagined for them, but they still roamed the streets of Russian cities.I’ve heard and seen stuff about the armies of street kids and prostitutes in Russia. The Olympics are coming up. So you may well be right about that.
On the other hand, given the evident determination of the Russians to present an exemplary face to the world when they host the Olympics, is he really going to be content with enforcing such a law against the actual wrongdoers? Or will its implementation be a dragnet that snags many innocents?
And one can’t help but wonder, will he take forceful measures to have all street people nowhere in evidence in Moscow when the world’s media focus is there? If he’ll jail people for holding hands, he’ll jail bizarre and skanky-looking street kids to keep them out of the foreign media’s cameras, I’m sure.
I have little difficulty in imagining internment camps outside Moscow that may just stay full even after the Olympics are over. Putin, the former KGB officer, is entirely capable of it.
The saddest thing, from America’s perspective, is that this will give fuel to gay vitriol in this country, and provide militant American gays with political cover from which to further advance their own agenda in this country.