Vodka and Winter Olympics under fire as rights group protest Russia's 'heinous' anti-gay laws

Russian vodka and the Winter Olympics in Sochi. For now, those are the prime targets as gays in the United States and elsewhere propose boycotts and other tactics to convey their outrage over Russia's intensifying campaign against gay-rights activism.

At many gay bars across North America, owners have joined a campaign to stop selling Russian vodka - notably the popular brand Stolichnaya. Activists also are pressing the International Olympic Committee and NBC, which holds US broadcasting rights for Sochi, to be more aggressive in criticising new Russian laws.

So far, there have been only scattered calls for a full-fledged boycott of the Sochi Games, but there is active discussion of how to convey gay-rights messages once the competition begins - including gestures by individual athletes and perhaps a gay-pride parade.

The chief flashpoint is a law signed by President Vladimir Putin that bans the "propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" and imposes hefty fines for providing information about the gay community to minors or holding gay pride rallies. Foreign citizens arrested under the law can be jailed for 15 days and then deported.

Russia's minister of sports, Vitaly L Mutko, said this week that foreign athletes travelling to Russia for the Olympics would be expected to obey the law or face criminal prosecution.

"No one is forbidding a sportsman with a nontraditional sexual orientation to come to Sochi," Mutko said. "But if he goes out on the street and starts to propagandise it, then of course he will be held accountable. Even if he's a sportsman, when he comes to a country, he should respect its laws."

There also is concern about a long-running problem of violence against gays in Russia, as well as a new law restricting adoptions of Russian children by people in countries allowing same-sex marriage.