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.
Oh, good lord.
Good this idiot be more of an embarrassment?
Putin could stop this, of course, but why should he? When the idiot acts like an idiot, let him! (Too bad the GOP leadership doesn’t see the advantage in doing so.)
And never the twain shall meet?
The Islamoterrorists are sexually weird, but they don't admit it--and have the gays that are out of the closet for breakfast.
What a stupid POS Zero is. He is alienating the entire world!
United States of America represented by a faggot. What’s not to like?
GAH!!!
Obama is going over the line interfering in the affairs of a sovereign nation.
If I were Putin, I’d ban Obama from entering the country
If was I were putin I would go golfing
Our homosexual activist meets theirs. Ho-hum.
OMG...I NEVER thought I would say that RUSSIA is MORE MORAL than we are, but it is!! And Bammy is going over there to POKE PUTIN in his eye......what a HORRIBLE PRESIDENT WE HAVE!!
Because this is THE most pressing issue facing Russia today?
And he is wasting OUR tax dollars to do it?
F U B O !!
GAYDAR.....ALL GAYS HAVE IT!!
He forgets he’s president of the whole USA and not king of Hollywood.
Would this be reason enough to have Putin declare him persona non grata? Becausr I would in a heartbeat.
“With all those hot women in Russia, who’d want to be gay?”
with a wife like Michelle, would you go straight??
There is a secret shake alright, and Obama knows it well.
Just ask Larry Sinclair. Or Read his book.
Obama promotes Islamists and Gays because BOTH want to DESTROY the LAST of our Judeo-Christian values!!
0bama’s getting a promotion from a mere puppet to a meat puppet. greeeaat
i wonder... do you think they’ll give 0bama asylum like they did snowden?
i wonder if this is the ‘flexibility’ he was referring to?
Would Obama meeting with these activists fall in that category?
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