International Olympic Committee to disqualify any athlete wearing rainbow pins in Russia

(not satire – it’s the IOC!)

The International Olympic Committee has announced it will punish – for example disqualify – any athlete wearing rainbow coloured pins at the Winter Olympics in Russia as a protest against the country’s draconian anti-gay laws.

The IOC said wearing pins or badges etc would amount to what it calls political ‘propaganda’ and could lead to disqualification of athletes.

This would presumably be after the IOC had allowed Russian police to arrest and detain the athletes first – as the Russian authorities have said they will do.

The IOC statement comes just days after Human Rights Watch released a report highlighting how the Russian authorities are harassing and silencing journalists who have been exposing corruption related to preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.

To be fair – considering the long, long inglorious joint histories of outright corruption, intolerance of free speech and turning a blind-eye to human rights abuses by both the International Olympic Committee and the Russian authorities – it’s not surprising they’re in total agreement with each other on this, is it?

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