Russia Page 12 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Caps Tell NPR Not To Ask Ovechkin About Anti-Gay Laws; NPR Asks Anyway
Through this offseason of shoving a mic in the face of every potential Russian Olympic athlete to get a quote on Russia's anti-gay legislation, Alexander Ovechkin has proved elusive. No more. NPR tracked down Ovechkin, recently returned from carrying the Olympic torch, and posed the burning question...

Russian Bears Beg For Food; Russian Motorists Oblige
On the highway between Khanty-Mansiysk and Tyumen in central Russia, motorists have taken to throwing treats onto the road for bears to eat. Naturally, the roadway is now being overrun with begging bears....

Russian Water Sports Are Dangerous And Awesome
Tube kites, inflatable rafts that are designed to take off when towed at speed, are banned in most parts of this country thanks to their disastrous safety record. Thankfully, Russia exists....

Ilya Kovalchuk On Russia's Anti-Gay Laws: "I Agree, Of Course"
Here's the former NHLer to TSN, as relayed by SI:...

Russia Has Officially Banned Protests At The Sochi Olympics
Russia's official government newspaper today published a new presidential decree signed by Vladimir Putin that bans all protests or demonstrations in Sochi from one month before the start of the Olympics until one month after. Sorry, gays and sympathizers!...

Pavel Datsyuk Defers To Religion On Russian Anti-Gay Laws
When Henrik Zetterberg and Victor Hedman publicly spoke out against Russia's anti-gay laws, we openly wondered what would happen when reporters approached the NHL's Russian players. Well, here's one....

Giant Deer Sculpture Doesn't Quite Clear Highway Overpass
Thanks are once again due to Russians' inimitable penchant for insurance fraud, because without it we wouldn't have dashboard cameras in every car....


Russian Runners Share Kiss On Winner's Podium
Kseniya Ryzhova and Tatyana Firova joined an ever-growing list of athletes to extend a middle finger at the bigoted law Russia recently passed with this kiss after winning gold in the women's 4x400 relay at the World Athletics Championships. ...

Two Olympic-Bound NHLers Speak Out Against Russia's Anti-Gay Laws
Tampa Bay's Victor Hedman and Detroit's Henrik Zetterberg, both locks for Sweden's Olympic team, have criticized Russian laws that ban "homosexual propaganda"ahead of the Sochi games....

Athlete Protests Against Russia's Anti-Gay Laws Have Already Begun
Earlier today at the World Championships in Moscow, two Swedish athletes offered up a subtle yet unmistakable protest against Russia's oppressive anti-gay policies ahead of next year's Olympics. But athletes remain split on the right way to speak out, or whether to do it at all....


John Amaechi Asks 2014 Sochi Olympians Not To Stick To Sports
Openly gay former NBA player John Amaechi penned an open letter to the National Olympics Committee and athletes competing in the 2014 Sochi Olympics on his site. He urged them not to ignore Russia's horrific anti-gay laws while they compete, but publicly speak out against them....

NBC Has A Big Gay Olympics Problem
Originally published in Bloomberg View...

Russia: Tourists, Athletes Subject To Anti-Gay Laws At Winter Olympics
Russia has a problem: Gay people exist. They're ghastly and gross and bad, and they could destroy the traditional family and rip apart the very fabric of the nation. Even the idea of homosexuality represents a danger to the country, which is why this summer, Vladimir Putin signed wide-sweeping anti-...

Chris Bosh Gets No Respect In The Russian Nesting Doll Game
According to the Reddit user who spotted these nesting dolls while visiting Russia, Bosh's doll was the smallest one in the set, coming in behind both Ray Allen and Mario Chalmers. That's some cold shit, Russia....

Vladimir Putin Invites Russia's Critics To “Try Some Viagra”
Russia wiped the floor with the competition at the World University Games, garnering 292 medals—with 155 of them being gold—at the 12-day competition. People complained that Russia brought in Olympians at an event for students, to which president Vladimir Putin says: Play some sports or pop some bon...

Driver Slams Car Into Motorcyclist, Because Russia
Just another dashboard-cam reminder that Russia and driving don't mix. Good thing this guy stops to check the damage to his vehicle first....

Russian Teens Decapitate Homeless Man And Play Soccer With His Head
The teens, who were also drunk, apparently used an axe, saw and knives to separate the man's head from his body because "they didn't like the look of him." Thus begins an occasional feature we'll call What the fuck, Russia?...

Vladimir Putin Says He Didn't Steal Bob Kraft's Super Bowl Ring
Yesterday, we wrote about how Russian president Vladimir Putin Deboed Patriots owner Bob Kraft for one of his Super Bowl rings. The story felt too good to be true, which means it might be too good to be true. Kraft's recount of the exchange and Putin's quote, for example, approaches something resemb...