Posted on 09/02/2013 3:53:20 PM PDT by Libloather
President Obama will meet with several LGBT groups during his trip later this week to St. Petersburg, a move likely to ruffle Russian President Vladimir Putin after the recent passage of a series of anti-gay laws.
The president will meet with human rights activists Lev Ponomarev and Lyudmila Alexeyeva, legal aid NGO director Pavel Chikov, and Coming Out, a St. Petersburg-based LGBT organization, according to a report in BuzzFeed.
The decision to meet with the activists in not unprecedented — Obama also met with human rights leaders in 2009 — but comes amid a period of heightened tension with the Kremlin.
During his address on Syria from the Rose Garden on Saturday, Obama blasted the United Nations Security Council as "completely paralyzed and unwilling to hold [Syrian president Bashar] Assad accountable" — a clear swipe at Russia, which has threatened to block any resolution condemning the alleged sarin attack in the Damascus suburbs.
Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called Secretary of State John Kerry's presentation on the attack "absolutely unconvincing" in a press conference on Monday, according to the Associated Press. He said the U.S. intelligence report included "nothing specific there, no geographic coordinates, no names, no proof that the tests were carried out by the professionals."
And Putin indicated he may send a delegation of Russian lawmakers to lobby the U.S. Congress against any military action in Syria, the Interfax news agency reported.
The skirmish over Syria comes after a summer dominated by a tussle with Putin over Edward Snowden, the former defense contractor responsible for leaking details of top-secret National Security Agency surveillance programs. After more than a month in the Moscow airport, the Kremlin offered Snowden temporary asylum despite protests from the White House.
Russia has also contended with a growing movement to boycott the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi over the new anti-gay laws, which threaten fines and imprisonment for those who stage gay pride rallies or events.
Earlier this summer, Obama said he did not "think it's appropriate to boycott the Olympics" — but said he hoped gay American athletes would win medals and change minds.
"One of the things I'm really looking forward to is maybe some gay and lesbian athletes bringing home the gold or silver or bronze, which I think would go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes that we're seeing there," he said.
That was my reaction...Putin is now arguably the most powerful leader in the world and Zero gives him the middle-finger salute! This will not end well.
If I was Putin I’d bitch slap that faggot sum bitch.
Shouldn't bathhouse barry be arrested? Or barred from the country as a provocateur?
That just made my day.
How do they prove that they're gay? Is there some sort of secret handshake?
Good point! And secondly, based on 0dumb0's comment above, I hope that any U.S. faggot gay or lesbian athletes get their asses kicked hard & decisively in any games they are entered in.
(Which BTW, they would probably love a good hard ass whipping anyway, more than a gold, silver or bronze medal)
LOL!
Bad stuff *could* happen to one who lands his fancy jet in a foreign country and then pokes his finger in the ruling class’s eye.
No matter how big a private army one brings with them. Or how thick the armor on their Cadillac.
Just sayin’.
The Kenyan punk really knows how to turn cranks, doesn’t he? Someplace in here he’s going to get hit in a way that’ll convince him he’s not king of the world just yet. But maybe there is a useless piece of desert someplace where he can enclave-up with all the useless dirtbagz that he loves to hang around with. Kind of like the Frogs sending Napolean to Elba? Maybe just an ice flow?
>> Yup, Obama’s bringing it right to Putin’s home turf.
Proving his Alpha-dog credentials by... meeting with his opponent’s FAGGOTS on his opponent’s home turf.
Is this surreal, or what?
Yeah...he could go dog sleigh racing with Todd...
and either salmon fishing or bear hunting with Sarah.
(but not grouse shooting with Chaney....LOL
“With all those hot women in Russia, who’d want to be gay?”
Agreed, still can’t figure it out.
Back in my green & salad days my most successful pickup line came from a Harold Robbins novel:
“With beautiful women like you in the world, how can there even be such a thing as homosexuality?”
It worked. Geez did it work. Ah, misspent youth!
I think that President Reagan meeting with Russian dissidents to pressure the Russian govt to lift curbs on freedom of religion, freedom of speech & freedom to travel, is a whole lot different than 0dumb0 meeting with faggots to spread their perverse abominable lifestyle. Faggots & 0dumb0 think they deserve special rights & protections? They don't! And I hope Putin kicks 0dumb0's ass for good measure.
I’m not a big fan of the man crush so many FReepers have developed lately on the murderous KGB gangster in charge or Russia. That being said Putin is a cold, calculating and vengeful murderous gangster and I won’t try upstaging him in his own country.
Isn’t pooty poot sending over some law makers to talk to congress/??
It’s not a man crush as much as a snark, and comparison to the pathetic non-resistance to Caliph Baraq by our elected “Republicans”
Obama is a detestable fag.
For some it’s snark. I get the comparison. For others it’s a man crush.
Yeah....
Maybe the Congressional Sargent At Arms can deputize them and their security detail to arrest the imposter.
I am sure Sheriff Joe would also lend a hand.
Obama is an idiot.
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