SOCHI, Russia - Russian President Vladimir Putin was given a warm welcome and invited to speak during his recent visit to the Canadian Olympic Committee's temporary home in Sochi because the Canadians 'had to be good hosts,' the committee's president has said.
Speaking on the final day of the Sochi Olympics, Marcel Aubut suggested he was caught off-guard when Putin visited Canada Olympic House - a temporary structure catering to Canadian athletes and their families at Olympic Park - last week.
'You should see the pile of emails that I get from doing what I did,' Aubut said Sunday. 'They invited Mr. Putin as a head of the state. This was the soul of the house of Canada. We had to be good hosts.'
Putin addressed the room. He posed for photographs and was pictured holding a pair of Canadian mittens over his head. In a video of the visit that has been posted online, Aubut addresses Putin directly: 'Mr. President, I would like to tell you how much we appreciate what Russia is offering.'
Last year, Russia criminalized what it calls the spread of gay 'propaganda.' And earlier in the Olympics, deputy prime minister Dmitry Kozak parroted something Putin had said, in which he seemed to compare pedophilia to homosexuality: 'We are all grown ups and every adult has their own right to understand their sexual activity ... Please, do not touch the kids, that is the only thing.'
It has been suggested Putin was welcomed too warmly in his visit to Canada's house.
'There was a lot of warmth,' Aubut said on Sunday. 'I was even surprised when he embraced me .... We're not into political debates. We are here for sport, for competition. If you have a president of a country that comes to us, why not welcome him?'
Putin had also visited the temporary home of the U.S. Olympic Committee.
'He showed up as the chief of state, wished us good luck, except for the hockey,' Aubut said on Sunday. 'I said, 'Sir you might not win this game.' He said, 'We'll see.''
sfitzgerald@nationalpost.com
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