About 50 gay activists protested outside the Russian Consulate, on E. 91st St., on Feb. 6, at the start of the Sochi Olympics. They were demonstrating against a Russian law passed last year restricting gay-rights activities performed around children, under which simply displaying a rainbow flag can result in jail time. Vladimir Putin, Russia’s macho, chest-baring president, recently tried to reassure the thousands of people pouring into the country for the Olympics, by saying, “We are not forbidding anything and nobody is being grabbed off the street, and there is no punishment for such kinds of relations. You can feel relaxed and calm [in Russia], but leave children alone please.”
