Russian Olympian Slams Critics Of Anti-Gay Law: ‘We Consider Ourselves Normal, Standard People’

A Russian Olympic athlete considered the top women’s pole vaulter in the world yesterday slammed critics of President Vladimir Putin‘s anti-gay laws by saying that Russians are “normal, standard people” — unlike “European people.”

Yelena Isinbayeva, 31, has won three Olympic medals, and took to the stage to condemn public homosexuality, and to personally chastise several Swedish athletes in Moscow this week at the World Championships. At least two women on Sweden’s national team painted their fingernails in various rainbow colors as a show of support for Russia’s LGBT community.

Vladimir Putin has been waging war on his LGBT citizens, and enabling violent anti-gay hate to run rampant, mutating into a perverted form of Russian national pride. Russians are now filming their violent attacks on LGBT people and cheerfully posting them to online social media sites and YouTube. Much of the Western world has expressed outrage over the treatment of LGBT people in Russia, ahead of the 2014 Winer Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

Of the Swedes’ “stunt,” Isinbayeva labeled it “disrespectful to our country.”

“It is disrespectful to our citizens. We are Russians. Maybe we are different to European people, to other people in other lands.”

“We are very afraid, and this is my opinion also, that if we allow people to promote and do all this [being openly LGBT] in the street we are scared for our nation.

“We consider us normal people, where boys live with women, women live with boys. It comes from our history. We never had any of these problems in Russia and we don’t want to have it in the future.”

“We have our law which everyone has to respect.”

Isinbayeva also said that homosexuality is a choice and not normal, although she claimed that LGBT athletes were welcome to compete on Russia’s teams.

“At least two Swedish athletes competed Thursday with their fingernails painted in rainbow colors at Luzhniki Stadium, the venue that also hosted the 1980 Moscow Olympics,” the New York Daily News reports:

Emma Green Tregaro, who won a bronze medal at the 2005 worlds, posted a picture of her fingers on the social media site Instagram, saying “Nails painted in the colors of the rainbow.” She followed that with several hashtags, including “(hash)pride” and “(hash)moscow2013.”

“The first thing that happened when I came to Moscow and pulled my curtains aside was that I saw the rainbow and that felt a little ironic,” Green Tregaro said in a video posted on the website of Swedish newspaper Expressen. “Then I had a suggestion from a friend on Instagram that maybe I could paint my nails in the colors of the rainbow and that felt like a simple, small thing that maybe could trigger some thoughts.”

Swedish sprinter Moa Hjelmer also had her nails painted in the rainbow colors when she ran in the 200-meter heats.

“Some teammates have done the same,” Sweden team spokesman Fredrik Trahn said. “The federation has not discussed it. It is all up to the athletes.”

Sadly, the Russian indoctrination machine is firmly in place.

“Isinbayeva’s popularity in Russia is so great that she is to serve as ‘mayor’ of one of the Olympic villages in Sochi,” ESPN adds:

She is also an ambassador for the Youth Olympics.

Sochi organizing committee spokeswoman Svetlana Bobrova said the body had no reason to comment on Isinbayeva’s statements about the painted fingernails.

Isinbayeva is on Twitter and Facebook.

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Image insert: Emma Green Tregaro’s nails, by Emma Green Tregaro, via Instagram