Barack Obama

has never been about Putin's opinion about gay people.

Putin, like all good authoritarian leaders, uses fear to create hegemony among the population and Gays are only the most recent canard.

Russians also crave to be accepted as full equals into their European neighborhood and Putin's campaign against gays has created a gap the size of the Grand Canyon. Russia will not be accepted as a respectable member of the group as long as they are going to the back to the middle ages with homophobia.

The use of high profile symbols to make the point to the Russian intelligentsia isn't aimed at Putin per se but in giving support for those that are determined to fight Putin within the country.

As for Putin's reversal on the Pussy Riot and Green Peace prosecution and imprisonment, the fact that it is happening weeks before the Winter Olympics proves exactly the point that Putin is very concerned in maintaining a level of respectability among his European neighbors.

But I don't really expect you to get it because you apparently thought that someone thought that Putin was going to do an immediate reversal because he was "going to be shamed into changing his mind or doing something that America wants just because of the members of the delegation that Obama sends to Russia to attend these games" having completely missed the point of why the President made the point it would be unfair to expect you to see the longer term strategy or how that strategy has in fact been successful on other human rights issues that the West holds Putin in contempt for.