Well I'm not saying it's a tolerant place -- it isn't. But the anti-gay laws in Russia are that you can't pass out pamphlets in schools (technically they call it a law against propaganda, but in practice it's a law against [i]teaching tolerance[/i] -- not a law against being gay).

That's what the law says, anyway. Meanwhile there's something of an effectively-state-sanctioned beating policy targeting homosexuals, which, again, is absolutely awful, [i]but[/i], it's not 'the law.' That's kind of a common misconception.

Anyway I thought the ceremonies looked and sounded fantastic. The little girl they got to do all that crazy shit was amazing, and other than a few hiccups the technology involved was incredible (remember that part with the boat? Remember that part with the cannons? remember that part with the giant jumping/spinning light robots?). If we just pretend for a minute that it's not a draconian neo-marxist autocracy, that whole opening ceremony was great.