The UEFA Champions League match between Basel and Schalke 04 on Tuesday was interrupted by Greenpeace activists. The environmentalists hung a banner: Gazprom don't foul the Arctic. Free the Arctic 30 (a play on words: to foul means "to pollute" and "to foul"). Gazprom is a sponsor of Schalke 04 and the Champions League. 30 Greenpeace activists who attempted to land on the Arctic platform of Gazprom Neft have been arrested and are being held in prisons in Murmansk.

I supported and support Gazprom's European marketing activity in football. Schalke 04 is a serious club, and the Champions League is an excellent platform for Gazprom to declare itself as a civilized company that brings benefits to Europeans. But now Gazprom will get a full rap for this activity in Europe. (The banner in Basel is the first swallow, yesterday Greenpeace activists blocked Gazprom gas stations in Germany, and there are still matches of Gazprom's Zenit in Europe ahead.)

It's not only and not so much his fault that he'll get it: the main reason is Russia's insane domestic policy, which is turning into foreign policy before our eyes in its consequences. Well, Europeans are not used to the fact that environmentalists - even radical ones - are thrown into prison until they are found guilty: please explain yourself or get lost with your laws and your gas back to the snow and bears.

Greenpeace activists who were careless enough to hold an action in Russia will now have to learn the hard way the essence of the Soviet proverb: "If there's a man, there's a way." Who are they - pirates? The boss seems to have said no. Investigators insist that they are pirates. Or maybe even worse - lesbians and homosexuals? We'll find out soon: the prosecutor will come up with something, the judge will rubber-stamp it - we've seen a lot of such "cases" in Russia over the last decade.

The state machine, which is going out of control, is crippling itself: one part of it - the so-called "law enforcement agencies" - is causing millions in losses to another - the so-called "national wealth" (Gazprom's investments in football marketing are going to waste, because they are no longer working in the plus, but in the minus, and even more significant expenses are ahead in order to calm public opinion).

And God bless Gazprom. But in a little over 100 days, a much more important event will begin from the point of view of state PR - the Olympic Games in Sochi. Which, according to the original plan of the authorities, were supposed to become a wonderful facade of the new Russia for the rest of the world. The incident in Basel should have taught our authorities to correlate their actions in Russia with how they are reflected in the rest of the world - if they are still capable of perceiving incoming information and drawing the right conclusions from it.

It doesn't look like that yet. Anti-anti-Magnitsky, anti-propaganda - and whatever else the printer will print in the four months remaining before the Games - laws have seriously aroused world public opinion. There, this is clearly perceived as an attack on the rights of minorities, i.e. aggression, and breeds counter-aggression. And what will we get in Sochi?

Will there be people of non-traditional sexual orientation among the athletes and fans who come to Sochi? Most likely. Could there be people among them who are proud of this orientation, who will try to demonstrate it, i.e. declare that they are ready to fight for their rights to love whoever they love? Perhaps, despite the IOC's warnings. I do not rule out the possibility that at the opening or awards ceremony, some fans or, even more so, athletes will raise a rainbow flag. And how will our system react: will they be twisted right in the stadium, and then "humanely" given a "two"? (By the way, the German Olympic team will have a rainbow uniform - albeit in five, not seven colors.)

If you don't believe in conspiracy theories (and I don't), then everything that's happening with Russia's foreign policy PR is the result of the degradation of the state's governing institutions, the selection of which is carried out solely on the principle of personal loyalty. But if you believe it, then somewhere in the vertical of power there is an offshoot that deliberately models such situations in order to be able to say after Sochi: "You see, Russia is really not loved, we wanted the best, but Western provocateurs ruined the holiday for us." And to begin tightening the screws even more intensively in domestic policy.

My wife doesn't want me to go to the Olympics - she's afraid of terrorist attacks. Of course, I'll go, because I'm not afraid of terrorist attacks. But I'm afraid of scandals and provocations. It looks like the journalists won't be bored at the Olympics. But believe me, scandals are the last thing I'd like to write about from Sochi.

Thing of the week: Banner at the Basel - Schalke 04 match