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Photo Credit: http://telegrafist.org
1. Gay rights at the Olympics.
Conflicting reports are coming from Russian officials on the enforcement of the gay rights propaganda law adopted by the national parliament earlier this year.
Earlier, the IOC announced that it obtained guarantees that the new legislation would not apply to the participants and visitors of the 2014 Sochi Olympics.
The same message was echoed by Igor Ananskikh, chairman of the State Duma sports and youth committee who insisted that maximum tolerance has to be exercised by the organizers during high-level international events like the Olympics or the Football World Cup that Russia will host in 2018.
However, Sport Minister Vitaly Mutko later made it clear that although athletes with any sexual orientation are welcome, they would not be allowed to publicly promote their views.
Could this uncertainty spook any of the visitors or even participants, or maybe provoke them to any public acts?
2. Safely call your dacha ‘home’.
Dacha owners would be allowed to register their countryside houses as their official place of living.
The government is working on a new draft law that would equal rural housing fit for all-season living with any other homes.
The bill would make registration possible only for Russian citizens, closing the opportunity for illegal migrants to settle down without official papers from the Federal Migration Service.
3. Be careful about your plane tickets
The national parliament has promised to introduce non-refundable fares in a move to help airlines cut their costs and prices for end customers.
The amendments to the Air Code will be adopted by the end of 2013, said Sergey Neverov, the parliament’s vice-speaker.
Earlier, Russia-IC reported that Aeroflot, Russian largest operator, was pushing for these changes to make its new low-cost project more economically viable.
According to the data provided by the Transport Ministry, only 8 percent of the tickets are returned by passengers.
Author: Mikhail Vesely
