advance of the olympics? how china cracked down and nobody noticed? that s what s going to happen here, except i think worse. so you actually think there s this kind of pause as russia is so clearly in the world spotlight and as soon as everyone packed up and has gone home, the crackdown will continue and worsen? i think it will intensify. putin feels his main concessions, because he actually released high-profile political prisoners. pussy riot among them. low-profile political prisoners have been getting harsh sentences as the preparation for the olympics continue. i think it will still lash out after the games are over. believing the eyes of the world are no longer on him. jeff, one of the things that comes through in your article and is the most upsetting about chronicling what has happened in russia is a the fact things have moved backwards but b this combination of thuggish vigilanteism with tacit state support. what you re seeing are people, citizens, stoning and b
president who is not attending the games, sending a delegation of gay athletes to attend in his place. but the anti-gay laws are just part of the collapse of modern gay russia. as jeff charlotte writes in gq books are banned, immigrants hunted, journalists killed, blasphemy is now illegal. civil society isn t just coming undone, it s imploding. this is vladimir putin s moment. he fought hard to be on the world stage. the problem with being on the world stage is that now everyone is watching. joining me now from russia, julia ioffe, senior editor at the new republic where she s covering this story. my first question, julia, how are the olympics being received in russia, themselves? i mean, are people excited about it? is it a big victory for putin? is there an upwelling of national pride? all right. it appears that our feed is not
over for a big party to his favorite place which is sochi where he loves to downhill ski? but also russia had suffered a disgrace during the 1980 b 0 bot of the soviet olympics. right. remember, that 1980 is when the u.s. boycotted the games. they were in russia and it was kind of half olympics because the u.s. wasn t there and it s sort of an asterisk next to those. right, and the u.s. and several other countries right. i believe boy coted the olympics in response to russia s invading afghanistan. this was russia s answer to everything. through the humiliation the soviet union suffered. the 1980s. the mess of the 199 0s. now vladimir putin resurrected russia and almost restored the soviet union and finally held the olympics and everybody came. jeff, you write about gay life in russia at this moment.
the most sacred cathedral in the orthodox church. why has that the relationship intensified between putin and the church? you know, that s a very difficult thing to unpack. i m not sure there s a distinction. they both come from the same. the russian orthodox church always served at the pleasure of the state. during the soviet period, russian clergy serviced to kgb. orthodox clergy have not changed. they re the same people. the head of the russian orthodox church, the patriarch who lobbied putin, come from the same corporation. they re both from the kbg. they re colleagues. right. jeff, what is the future for the folks you talk to on the ground there? are they planning to flee? are they going under ground? what are they doing. they re going under ground. they re planning to flee. i spent a night having dinner with one family, two lesbians and their son. and their dinner they were out a year ago. now they re closeted at work. they re making arrangements. every night they get tog
nobody noticed? that s what s going to happen here, except i think worse. so you actually think there s this kind of pause as russia is so clearly in the world sp spotlight and as soon as everyone packed up and has gone home, the crackdown will continue and worsen? i think it will intensify. putin feels his main concessions, because he actually released high-profile political prisoners. pussy riot among them. low-profile political prisoners have been getting harsh sentences as the preparation for the olympics continue. i think it will still lash out after the games are over. believing the eyes of the world are no longer on him. jeff, one of the things that comes through in your article and is the most upsetting about chronicling what has happened in russia is a the fact things have moved backwards but b this combination of thuggish vigilanteism with tacid state support. what you re seeing are people, citizens, stoning and beating up