The snow at the Sochi Olympics is red. Red with the blood of innocent animals. The Olympics have always stood for peace and brotherhood — not in Russia, or at least not towards animals. The authorities have in fact scheduled the extermination of the city's stray dogs.

The authorities of the Krasnodar region, which organised the Winter Olympics, believe that the many stray dogs roaming the city could damage the image of the Games, and have given the order to step up the killings.

Vladimir Putin is certainly not well regarded by international public opinion: he is blamed for the repression of the Chechen people and of press freedom, and of political opponents. The destruction of the Arctic and the trampling of civil rights. The barbaric handling of the stray dog problem is merely the latest in a series of controversies surrounding the Russian prime minister.

In response to protests from animal rights activists, Sergei Krivonosov, a Putinist deputy from Krasnodar, replied tersely: "Removing dogs from the streets is Russia's responsibility towards the international community, and their elimination is the fastest way to solve this problem."

In 2013, the authorities had promised the construction of shelters and kennels. On the eve of the Olympics, there is no evidence that a single shelter has been built.

The fate of the dogs lies in the hands of volunteers such as Vlada Provotorova, a dentist by profession, who with the help of a group of friends and volunteers has set up a shelter and is engaged in sterilising stray dogs. "We have managed to save no more than a hundred dogs," said Vlada Provotorova, "but in the meantime at least five thousand have been killed." One of the volunteers on Provotorova's team, lawyer Dina Filippova, points the finger at the absence of animal rights laws in Russia. "In Russia you can abuse animals — it is not a crime. You can adopt a dog and abandon it on the street and go unpunished."