Citing “terrorism,” Russia’s President Vladimir Putin just signed a decree that will ban all demonstrations, rallies, and protests in Sochi, Russia, well before and after the 2014 Winter Olympics. The official order, reported in the Russian press today, bans “meetings, rallies, demonstrations, marches and pickets that are not associated with the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games†that are not officially part of the Olympic Games. Travel will be highly restricted in the area, and every person will be searched. The Winter Olympics in Sochi are from February 7-23, and the Paralympics are from March 7-16, but the order covers far more time.
The order “requires the implementation of special measures for their anti-terrorism protection, subject to enhanced protection in the manner prescribed in the period of preparation for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.”
“Among other measures in the decree were restrictions on vehicles entering Sochi. Only cars with local license plates, emergency vehicles and those accredited by the Olympic organizers will be allowed to enter the host city between Jan. 7 and March 21,” Global News reports:
Rights organizations have earlier voiced concerns about what they described as the “harassment and intimidation of civil society†advocates in Sochi. Human Rights Watch said in a statement that environmental, human rights and other activists have been “the targets of attacks, detention for peaceful protests and police searches.â€
Gay activist Nikolai Alexeyev told The Associated Press on Friday that he would petition the Supreme Court next week to contest the presidential decree banning rallies in Sochi as “violating our right of freedom of assembly.â€
Russian authorities have repeatedly denied gay activists’ applications to set up a Pride House in Sochi during the Games but Alexeyev said he would apply for permission to hold a gay pride rally in Sochi on the opening day of the Games anyway.
In fact, Alexeyev took to Twitter to blast the move by Putin:
President Putin basically stopped application of Russian Constitution and law in peaceful time. All public event in Sochi banned at Olympics
— Nikolai Alexeyev (@n_alexeyev) August 23, 2013
Sochi Gay Pride will be officially applied and conducted irrespective of unconstitutional acts.
— Nikolai Alexeyev (@n_alexeyev) August 23, 2013
Executive order of Russian President Putin putting moratorium on freedom of assembly during Sochi Olympics is unconstitutional.
— Nikolai Alexeyev (@n_alexeyev) August 23, 2013
Last night, Russian LGBT journalist Masha Gessen told MSNBC’s Chris Hayes that the protests from the West against Putin’s war on gays and anti-gay laws are working. “They’ve really squirmed,†Gessen said.
UPDATE: LGBT blogger John Aravosis weighs in:
“Russia’s new threats, which appear to tie gay human rights – and any freedom of speech during the Winter Olympics – to “terrorism†(is it just a coincidence that a “terror†document banning free speech at Sochi comes out now?) is sure to further depress turnout at what was already considered one of the most unsafe Olympic games in recent memory.
And there’s an even greater headache now for the International Olympic Committee.
Any violation of Russia’s draconian anti-gay “propaganda†law during the Sochi Olympics is now a violation of a Russian anti-terrorism decree.
That would seem to raise the crime of being openly gay to an entirely new and dangerous level: An act of terrorism.
And what exactly is the price one pays for violating anti-terror decrees in Russia? Â Our Olympians may soon find out.
Image by Alexander Persson via Instagram