47,000 people, George Takei sign petition to move Sochi Olympics to Vancouver

[another_liberal]

61. Such a law has to be inforced by the Russian authorities.

Those authorities take their orders from the Kremlin, which means President Putin. I would not place too much weight on that law being enforced when doing so will embarrass Putin and wreck his Olympics. In the real World of Russian politics, the Duma is largely powerless to force the Russian President to do anything he chooses not to, and sad will be any minor official who opposes him.

It's a little like the stand-off between Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall and President Andrew Jackson over the "Indian Removal Act." When Marshall found that the Cherokee people had the right, as a sovereign nation, to remain on their lands in Georgia and South Carolina, Jackson is said to have replied, "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it." What followed is know today as The Trail of Tears.