Russia: Finnish minister waves rainbow flag at Moscow athletics, despite anti-gay laws
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The Finnish minister for culture and sports attended the World Athletic Championships in Moscow last week, and on Saturday, despite harsh anti-gay laws, flew a rainbow flag at the event.
The Finnish media reports that Paavo Arhinmäki flew the flag whilst watching the women’s high jump final, which featured Sweden’s Emma Green-Tregaro, who made her own show of support for LGBT Russians.
High jumper Emma Green-Tregaro, 28, made the show of support for Russia’s LGBT community on Thursday by painting her nails in the rainbow colours for the qualifying round of the event. At the final, she changed her nails to red “for love”, after being advised that she may have broken the code of conduct.
Arhinmäki also said that he raised the issue of the anti-gay law with the Russian sports minister on Saturday. He said that LGBT oppression is part of a wider human rights problem in Russia, and called for long-term solutions.
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