The 2014 Winter Olympics: Day 12.

I think today's events warrant an early round up.

Today at the Winter Olympics Singapore born and British raised Vanessa Mae has been representing Thailand. Presumably because she's got her own skis. As Ms Mae is already internationally famous as a classical violinist Thailand decided that the attention this brings provides a fantastic opportunity to have its ongoing political crisis discussed internationally.

As such Thai police moved into to further break up the Born to Rule protester camps in the capital Bangkok. Rather predictably this was met with a violent response that so far has left three dead and at least 50 injured. At roughly the same time it was announced that Thailand's embattled Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra is to face criminal charges of corruption relating to a government rice subsidy program. This juxtaposition of the apparatus of state moving in to control the protests alongside allegations that the Prime Minister is corrupt is an attempt to make things appear as less like a Monarch led coup. The idea being to portray the apparatus of state (the police) as impartial while suggesting that there are legitimate grounds to doubt the integrity of the government. Of course what is actually happening is that the Monarchy is delaying its overthrow of the government until such a time as the widely popular Prime Minister's credibility has been eroded enough for the public to tolerate a coup.

Although I doubt that Olympic politics played a role Ms Mae's performance in the Super G event was disappointing at best with her finishing a lowly 67th. As one commentator on Twitter put it; "She beat everyone who fell down but none of the people who didn't."

Thailand's attempts to have their political situation discussed fared pretty much the same as Ms Mae's attempts to win a medal with the Thai political unrest being quickly replaced by political unrest in Sochi's neighbour Ukraine. Here anti-Russian protesters have attempted to storm the Parliament building while changes to the constitution were to be debated. So far five people have been reported killed amid clouds of tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets and petrol bombs.

The political unrest in Ukraine has been very long running and dates back to the Cold War when NATO countries led by the US funded, trained and directed nationalist groups to cause unrest in an attempt to destabilise the Soviet Union. This latest phase in this long running saga began in November 2013 when the European Union and the Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych conspired to allow Ukraine to withdraw from EU membership talks in order to ease tensions between Russia and the EU. This made the US furious because it is in their interests to keep the EU and Russia at each others throats. Also instability in the Ukraine provides the US with a way to exert pressure on Russia over Syria. Therefore the US seems to be leading today's violence in an effort to show the world that it is punishing Russia for the collapse of the Geneva II talks on regime change in Syria.

Also though the unrest in Ukraine provides the US with a much needed distraction from Thailand's efforts to have their political unrest discussed at the Olympics. Despite the fact the Thai Monarchy have never been exactly comfortable with the idea of an elected government they have remained close allies of the US providing a bulwark against South East Asian Communism during the Cold War and especially during the Vietnam war. As such the US decided to reward Thailand by granting them not one but two surprise visits by Rihanna during the third leg of her 2013 Diamonds World Tour. The idea was to give Thailand an advantage over its neighbours - particularly China. As it turns out this went spectacularly wrong with Rihanna's visits to Thailand actually weakening the nation to the point where they were glad to get rid off her. The current coup attempt is a direct consequence of Rihanna's trip there so is something that Rihanna's CIA handlers are extremely sensitive about.

In spite of all this it looks like the big story of the day at the Olympics is going to be the arrest of two members (Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova) of the band "Pussy Riot" in Sochi on suspicion of theft. Along with Yekaterina Samutsevich Alyonkhina and Tolokonnikova rose to international prominence in February 2012 when the were jailed after performing quite an offensive song in Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in what they termed a protest against Vladimir Putin. This latest arrest though seems to be a response to the antics of a Italian former MP who has been making quite the exhibition of herself in and around the Olympic park.

On Sunday (16/2/14) Vladimir Luxuria (possibly not her real name) claims she was arrested on the streets of Sochi for waving the Rainbow flag that symbolises gay pride/rights. Nobody witnessed this arrest and the police certainly have no record of the arrest. However having got her name known by a few members of the press on Monday (17/2/14) Ms Luxuria decided that she would harass people as the entered the Bolshoi arena for the evening's women's ice hockey game. Dressed as though she's been vomited on by a Drag Queen and followed around by a scrum of reporters Ms Luxuria spent a couple of hours screaming and shouting at the top of her lungs. Eventually Olympic security removed Ms Luxuria from the venue and she was stripped of her credentials meaning she is unable to re-enter the Olympic park.

The important thing to remember about Ms Luxuria is that she is a lunatic attention seeker. That is to say she probably suffers from a mild form of narcissistic personality disorder that means she is only happy when people are talking about her and she is the centre of attention. Beyond that I suspect she is keen to be seen protesting for gay rights in the hope of picking up support amongst the LGBT community in her native Italy ahead of an attempt to relaunch her political career.

However the way that she has been able to gain Olympic accreditation appears to be the result of a co-production between Italy and the UK to curry favour amongst Russian homophobes by highlighting the fact many gay rights protesters (few of whom are actually gay) are indeed suffering from a form of mental illness. The UK has today followed up Ms Luxuria's antics with a pre-planned announcement demanding that the mentally ill are no longer locked up in police cells. The message is quite simply; "Here in the UK we think that homosexuals are mentally ill but maybe Russia should try treating them rather then locking them up?"

15:55 on 18/2/14 (UK date) - It's a live write so bear with me.

Edited at around 16:20 on 18/2/14 (UK date) to add;

This allegiance between Italy and the UK has actually become something of a story of the games itself. That's because it seems to have been tested to breaking point by the acrimony between Britain's Elise Christie and Italy's Arianna Fontana in the women's speed skating. Today Christie managed to both stay on the track and avoid crashing into any other competitors in her 1000m heat meaning that she will go through to Friday's (21/2/14) final. The Italian Prime Minister who presided over Italy and the UK's pre-Olympic planning has fared less well and Enrico Letta stepped down last Friday (14/2/14). I hope that this doesn't become too much of hindrance to Italy's political left because it's quite clear that Italy's main problem is that as with Greece the Italian Establishment contains far too many actual fascists.

The way that Alyonkhina and Tolokonnikova of Pussy Riot fame have provided Russia's response to Ms Luxuria's antics is actually quite interesting. While they have been sort of elevated to hero status by much of the western media Pussy Riot have actually been subject to a very different narrative within Russia - something along the lines of; "When will these silly girls grow up?"

Pussy Riot's Cathedral stunt occurred during a wave of protests that followed the 2011 Russian elections. In the west these were widely labelled as "Anti-Putin protests." However being inspired by the "Occupy" protests they were more protests against everything that is wrong with modern Russia. Many of the protesters demands mirrored perfectly a series of seven articles published in various Russian newspapers that highlighted Russia's political problems and put forward credibly suggestions of how to solve them. The author of those articles was Vladimir Putin. Alongside the very strong opening ceremony to the Sochi games this paints a picture of a nation that it acutely aware of its faults and is calling on its people to pull together to work towards a better future.

As such I do genuinely hope that Alyonkhina and Tolokonnikova did decide to commit the theft in order that they could be arrested to allow Russia to respond to Ms Luxuria's antics. That's because I think it would be a rather positive end to Pussy Riot's personal "journey" if they decided to start working for change in Russia rather then constantly trying to fight against it.

16:55 on 18/2/14 (UK date).


Edited at around 18:00 on 18/2/14 (UK date) to add; Having had a moment to think about it I'm not sure if I made this clear.

Vladimir Luxuria's strange behaviour is an (not very good) example of the sort of spontaneous, unilateral protest that the US and others were trying to encourage through the Principle 6/1.2.6 campaign. The idea being that these small protests suddenly spring up causing the Russian organisers and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) a lot of stress as they try to deal with them. However because they are intended to be just individuals acting on their own it is quite difficult to track them back to a specific nation.

By lionising the Pussy Riot girls pretty much since they emerged but especially in the run up to the Sochi games the US has been trying to build them up in the hope of inspiring Russian spectators at the games to stage this Luxuria-type of unilateral protests. That would be particularly embarrassing for the Russians because at first glance it would look like the Russian authorities trying to stamp out domestic protest.

As such the Russians used the Pussy Riot girls as their response to Ms Luxuria in order to highlight the strategy behind the Principle 6/1.2.6 campaign. That has the added effect of highlighting the major flaw in Russia's anti-gay propaganda laws because if Russian adults aren't allowed to help Russian youngsters come to terms with their homosexuality those youngsters will instead turn to the Internet where they can fall easily victim to western agitators in much the same way the Pussy Riot girls have.