The State of Affairs in Russia

[Razgovory]

Well it's not like the US has ever boycotted a Russian Olympics.

[alfred russel]

Well it's not like the US has ever boycotted a Russian Olympics.

Which was ridiculous.

[Syt]

[Tamas]

 

[The Larch]

There are some better ones around.  My favourite must be the journalist arriving at his room at 2 in the morning and finding builders there finishing the bathroom, or the toxic tap water one.

[grumbler]

In 1996 the US hosted the Olympics in a place where homosexual relations were outright criminalized.

No they didn't.  This is a rewrite of history.  Georgia banned sodomy until 1998, but that was about sodomy,not "homosexual relations" and applied to heterosexuals as well.

[grumbler]

If you want to pressure outliers like Saudi Arabia, that is a great place to start. But if you want to draw the line somewhere above Russia for full inclusion, you are going to leave most of the world excluded. You then have a western democracy Olympic movement, not a worldwide Olympic movement, and I think that undermines the core spirit more than the current situation.

The "worldwide Olympic movement" is quite recent, and not part of the "core spirit" of the Olympics at all.  The original Olympic games were quite restricted in scope, and the "modern games" as revived in the Nineteenth Century was very much built around Western values.  The commercialized Olympics as developed in the 20th Century is about making money for big businesses and corrupt individuals, and has no "core spirit" to be undermined.

[celedhring]

There are some better ones around.  My favourite must be the journalist arriving at his room at 2 in the morning and finding builders there finishing the bathroom, or the toxic tap water one.

This might be the first time I bother watching the Winter Olympics, if only for the hilarious botches and protests potential.

[alfred russel]

In 1996 the US hosted the Olympics in a place where homosexual relations were outright criminalized.

No they didn't.  This is a rewrite of history.  Georgia banned sodomy until 1998, but that was about sodomy,not "homosexual relations" and applied to heterosexuals as well.

IIRC (and I may not, though I did live in Georgia during the time period), the sodomy laws included oral sex and sexual relationships outside of marriage were also illegal. So yes, homosexual relations were criminalized. Though homosexual relations were clearly not the full scope of what was criminalized.

[The Larch]

There are some better ones around.  My favourite must be the journalist arriving at his room at 2 in the morning and finding builders there finishing the bathroom, or the toxic tap water one.

This might be the first time I bother watching the Winter Olympics, if only for the hilarious botches and protests potential.

AFAIK they've just contracted a pest control company to cull around 2.000 stray cats and dogs because they say there's a real risk that some of them might sneak into the venues.

[Syt]

https://twitter.com/SochiFails





2 days to go!


Painting grass:

[Ed Anger]

Why did the chicks on the toilets pic turn me on?

[Syt]

They look like typical young Czech ladies.

[Syt]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/06/nyregion/russia-blocking-a-yogurt-shipment-from-reaching-us-olympians.html?smid=fb-nytimes&WT.z_sma=NY_RBY_20140206&bicmp=AD&bicmlukp=WT.mc_id&bicmst=1388552400000&bicmet=1420088400000&_r=0

Russia Blocks Yogurt Bound for U.S. Athletes

The relationship between the United States and Russia is deeply strained, with recent disagreements over weighty matters like the Syrian conflict, arms control, human rights and the granting of asylum to Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has leaked troves of documents detailing the government's eavesdropping programs.

Now the two countries are skirmishing over an unanticipated, but no less momentous subject, at least in certain parts of the United States: the delivery of Greek yogurt to the American athletes competing at the Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The Russian government is apparently blocking a shipment of 5,000 containers of Chobani yogurt — now sitting in limbo in cold storage near Newark Liberty International Airport — that had been bound for the United States Olympic team.

The blockade has prompted protests from yogurt-promoting politicians in New York and in Washington, who express outrage that American athletes could be deprived of a protein-rich food that had been part of their training regimen.

The Russian government says the American-made yogurt cannot enter Russia because the Americans have not submitted the proper paperwork. The United States says the certification required by the Russians would be impossible to attain.

The yogurt makers are growing exasperated.

"I'd like to think that yogurt could have diplomatic immunity," said Peter McGuinness, the chief marketing and brand officer for Chobani.

After beginning as a breakfast-table squabble, the dairy drama is quickly escalating.

The Obama administration has intervened, seeking to clear the way for the delivery. A United States senator fired off an urgent letter to the Russian ambassador, asking for his help.

American officials are hoping to receive a special dispensation from the Russian agency Rosselkhoznadzor, the Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance, whose jurisdiction includes American-made Greek yogurt.

Yogurt production is a booming business in upstate New York, a place that does not have many booming businesses. Naturally, the industry has become a favorite for many of the state's leading elected officials.

Senators Charles E. Schumer and Kirsten E. Gillibrand, both Democrats, have pushed for Greek yogurt to be served with school lunches. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, also a Democrat, is planning his second "yogurt summit" to celebrate the industry.

Mr. Schumer, who is fond of plain Greek yogurt and likes to add raisins, has jumped into the fray. "There is simply no time to waste in getting our Olympic athletes a nutritious and delicious food," he said in a statement.

In requesting that the blockade be lifted, Mr. Schumer added that when it comes to yogurt, "the Russian authorities should get past 'nyet.' "

No resolution is in sight. Whether American athletes will have access to any other brands of yogurt could not be determined on Wednesday. Yevgeniy Khorishko, a spokesman for the Russian Embassy in Washington, said American officials had been told about the necessary paperwork, but had not complied.

Mr. Khorishko said there would be no special treatment just because the yogurt was bound for American lips. "We are a lawful country," he said. "You should follow the rules."

The Sochi-bound yogurt may be a victim of a broader dairy dispute. American dairy producers have been cut off from the Russian market since 2010, as the two countries have been unable to reach an agreement on health certification for American dairy exports. "The Russians have not put in the effort to try to resolve this," said Jaime Castaneda, a senior vice president of the National Milk Producers Federation, adding that Russia was an appealing market for butterfat.

Chobani is the official yogurt of the United States Olympic team, and in the run-up to Sochi, its products were made available to athletes at Olympic training centers in the United States.

For the Olympics, the company had planned to send single-serve cups of blueberry, strawberry and peach yogurt, along with larger containers of plain yogurt that could be used to make smoothies. Some of the yogurt came from upstate New York, and some from Chobani's other American factory, in Idaho.

Mr. McGuinness, the Chobani executive, said it only seemed natural to send along a shipment of Chobani, given that American athletes had enjoyed eating it during their training.

"Unfortunately, no good deed goes unpunished," he said.

Yogurt-sensitive politicians came to Chobani's defense on Wednesday, urging Russian officials to reconsider their crackdown.

"You'd think they'd have enough to worry about," said James L. Seward, a Republican state senator whose district includes Chobani's plant in Chenango County.

He predicted ample access to Greek yogurt could boost the Americans' medal count.

And Gary D. Finch, a Republican state assemblyman who also represents the Chobani plant, suggested that Russia should also consider importing Chobani so Russians everywhere could enjoy it.

"It would have a healthy effect on the way they look at life over there," he said.

Mr. Finch, recalling Chobani's explosive growth since its founding, walked over to his refrigerator and opened it. He counted 18 cups.

If Russia wants to have a cold war over yogurt, he said, so be it.

"Whatever they choose to bring to the table to have some conflict over, we, of course, will win," he said. "And we will have our yogurt at the end of the day."

[Ed Anger]

They look like typical young Czech ladies.

I'll need to Czech them out.