Sochi Olympics: French, German Presidents Can't Be Arsed To Attend

Neither President Francois Hollande nor any top French official will attend the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has said.

Mr Fabius announced the decision on French radio, but gave no explanation.

Last week German President Joachim Gauck also said he was not going to the games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Activists have urged leaders to boycott the event over human rights concerns, including a new Russian law banning "homosexual propaganda".

Mr Fabius told Europe 1 radio on Sunday: "Top French officials have no plans to be there."

Mr Gauck announced he would not attend the Sochi games last weekend, but did not elaborate either...

BBC News.

According to the German news site dw.de, President Gauck's office has elaborated;

President Gauck's office on Sunday confirmed a story published by the Spiegel news magazine that he would not travel to Sochi for the Winter Olympics in February. However, a spokesperson for his office said this was not meant as a boycott of the Games.

Gauck's spokesperson also noted that a number of former presidents have given previous Winter Games a miss, including his immediate predecessor, Horst Köhler, who did not attend the last Winter Games when they were held in the Canadian city of Vancouver.

Michael Vesper, the general secretary of German Olympic Sports Federation, also played down the news.

"Just because somebody doesn't travel somewhere doesn't make it a boycott," Vesper said. "As far as we know, there was never a plan for Mr. Gauck to visit Sochi."

Because we are American and like telling the world what to do!

According to BBC News, the French Foreign Minister Laurent "Fabius offered no explanation for the move. "There are no plans to attend," he told Europe 1 radio, referring to Hollande and himself. "Top French officials have no plans to be there."

So it seems a bit hasty to interpret Hollande and Fabius' non-attendance as a protest about anything - eg small matters like disputes over Syria, Ukraine etc etc - never mind about LGBT rights abuses in Russia.

Though that didn't stop much of the gay media hailing this news as being somehow a victory for #teamgay!

Towleroad even claimed they have joined "the growing list of major foreign officials that are boycotting the Sochi Olympics in protest of Putin's anti-gay laws."

Eh?

As there's no evidence for this yet, Fagburn can only assume the dude's a mind-reader.

America's most-read gay blogger Joe My God wrote; "Last week the ceremonial president of Germany announced that he was boycotting Sochi over Russia's anti-gay pogrom."

It's hard to know where to start with such a ridiculous, false and hysterical statement.

Pogrom??? FFS!

It also seems a bit odd - nay pointless - to "protest" about something and remain silent about what you're actually "protesting" about. 

President Obama did not attend the 2012 London Olympics - perhaps this SNUB!!! was a "silent protest" against the Bedroom Tax?

Or something.

Update: Labour MP Denis MacShane is also a mind-reader, Evening Standard.
He urges David Cameron not to go to Russia. Mr MacStupid seems to have forgotten Cameron was in human-rights loving China just the other day.
And then there was Sri Lanka, which he left to sell arms to the United Arab Emirates etc etc...