Russian authorities have agreed to go back on President Vladimir Putin's decree that no protests will be permitted at the Winter Olympics in Sochi next February after pressure applied from the International Olympic Committee.
There will now be a sectioned off area where people will be permitted to voice their protests during the Games that runs from February 7-23 in the Black Sea resort where Putin has a holiday home, IOC president Thomas Bach announced on Tuesday.
In August Putin, who played a major role in Sochi winning the right to host the Games during the bid race which came to a heady climax in 2007, had issued a presidential decree which forbade any protests to take place over issues that were not linked to the Games.
This followed hot on the heels of the equally controversial law which is seen to be anti-gay and which has prompted calls for a boycott from some quarters, though, Bach rejecting such calls out of hand - he has bitter experience of a boycott as he and his team-mates were unable to defend their fencing title at the 1980 Olympics in Moscow because of a western boycott over the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan.
Bach has favoured dialogue instead and he said that discussions with the organisers of the Sochi Games had borne fruit as evidenced by the organising committee's announcement that protesters would after all have an area where they could protest about anything they liked.
"We welcome the announcement of the organising committee which is following some discussions we had with our Russian partners that in Sochi a protest zone will be established," said Bach.
"The space will give people who want to express their opinion or want to demonstrate for or against something the opportunity to do it in a special protest zone in Sochi."
