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Don't polticise Sochi Olympics: Russia

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IANS Moscow
Last Updated : Aug 07 2013 | 7:44 PM IST

Russia said Wednesday that attempts to politicise the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games were counterproductive.

"Any attempts to politicise the Olympic Games are absolutely counterproductive and contradict to the very spirit of this event," the foreign ministry's commissioner for human rights, democracy and supremacy of law Konstantin Dolgov told reporters.

On Tuesday, German Justice Minister Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger called for boycotting the Sochi Olympics in protest against the recently adopted Russian law banning gay propaganda among children, reports Xinhua.

"We assume that all guests and participants of the Olympics will be welcomed. But, at the same time, (they) will strictly follow the Russian law and respect customs and traditions of our country," Dolgov said, adding that "it is a normal wish."

On Wednesday, Russian Prime Minster Dmitry Medvedev inspected the Olympic venues in Sochi.

In 1980, over 60 countries and reginos boycotted the Summer Olympics in Moscow in protest against Soviet intervention to Afghanistan. The former Soviet Union and its allies retaliated the move as they boycotted the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 1984.

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First Published: Aug 07 2013 | 7:36 PM IST

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