Gay rights campaigners have called for the 2014 Winter Olympics to be moved away from Sochi after a law outlawing the supply of information about homosexuality to under-18s was passed in Russia. “I think we have to make very clear what the IOC can and can’t do,” said Thomas Bach, the new IOC President.“We have to make it clear that the Olympic Charter has to be fully applied with regard to the Olympic Games and the participants. There we have assurances from the highest authorities in Russia. The IOC, on the other hand, is not a supranational parliament or government and our responsibility is respect for the Olympic values in the Olympic Games and its participants and, by respecting the values in the Games, sending a message to society at large”.
“It will be up to the IOC to devise a strategy that will deal with the issue in more detail and this we will do in the next couple of weeks or months and then this will be communicated to the National Organising Committees, the athletes and of course to the public.”