Athletes participating in Russia's World Athletics Championship have demonstrated their distaste for recent anti-gay legislation in Moscow since the games began a week and a half ago-but not like this.
Two Russian female athletes kissed each other on the winners' stand; now, spectators wonder whether or not the women embraced in protest of a law that Russian lawmakers passed barring homosexual propaganda from public view, Sky News reported.
Kseniya Ryzhova and Tatyana Firova apparently locked lips to make a political statement, but some say it might have just been a gesture of endearment.
Either way, the kiss could put both Ryzhova and Firova in hot water, since the two runners went directly against laws that ban people-LGBT or not-from displaying homosexuality publicly.
Neither Firova nor Ryzhova has released an official statement on the matter.
This display comes just days after American track star Nick Symmonds openly condemned Russia's anti-gay laws.
"I disagree with their laws and I disagree with their views," he stated on an ABC News interview. "I'm trying to tread that fine line of being respectful as a guest in this country and also speaking against some serious injustices that I see."
Symmonds made these comments after he won the silver medal and dedicated his victory to his LGBT friends.
Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva also spoke about Moscow's legislation, after two Swedish athletes painted their nails rainbow colors during the competition.
"We consider ourselves, like normal, standard people, we just live boys with women, girls with boys," she said.
Her sentiments sparked intense response from both the public and media. Isinbayeva later said that her feelings "may have been misunderstood," and that she was merely saying that "people should respect the laws of other countries, particularly when they are guests," the Toronto Sun reported.
Watch the video below-does it look like the kiss was a political statement against Russian legislation?
