“I don’t know in whose fantasy this all gets thought up…”
Russia is known for many things: depressing poetry, even more depressing cold soup, worse winters and over-the-top amounts of kisses when a singular, firm handshake would suffice. Case in point: Much to her indignation, a Russian gold medalist from the recent World Athletics Championships in Moscow has been rumored to have given a lesbian kiss to a teammate after they won their event, as reported by France24.com on Aug. 20, 2013.
Ksenia Ryzhova and Yulia Gushchina comprise half of Mother Russia’s first place 4x400m relay team, and in the wake of bringing home the gold to the Land of the Rus, the two slid down the slippery slope of the comrade-friendly Russian custom of planting a ridiculous amount of smooches to every cheek above the collar bone.
While in a full celebratory kiss-mode that would make Gene Simmons envious, Ryzhova and Gushchina were caught by a camera at a moment in time where they appeared to be in full lip-lock, when in actuality Ryzhova wasn’t kissed on the lips, but just below her nose.
Correspondingly, Gushchina was kissed above the chin.
Nevertheless, Ryzhova was more than slightly angry when certain media and homosexual rights groups stated the two exchanged a steamy same-sex smooch to protest Russia’s recent law against minors glamorizing homosexuality and lesbianism.
Ryzhova made it clear that she was happily married, as is her teammate Gushchina, and for the past eight years the two have simply been teammates and good friends.
As quoted by the Russian news agency ITAR-TASS, a noticeably testy Ryzhova stated:
Yesterday, I was telephoned 20 times by various publications and instead of congratulating me they decided to insult me with these questions.
Myself and Yulia are both married and we are not having any kind of relationship.
The spirited sprinter concluded by stating:
It was a storm of emotions (after winning).
And if at that moment we touched lips… I don’t know in whose fantasy this all gets thought up.
