European Union commissioner Viviane Reding said she would not be attending the Sochi 2014 Olympics in February over what she said was Russia’s treatment of minorities, joining German President Joachim Gauck in an open snub to the host nation.

“I will certainly not go to Sochi as long as minorities are treated the way they are under the current Russian legislation,” Reding, EU Commissioner for Justice, Citizenship and Fundamental Rights, said in a tweet yesterday.

While it was unclear whether Reding had been invited or would have gone as an EU representative or a private citizen, her decision to openly oppose Russia’s recent legislation was the most vocal statement by a politician to date.

Russia has been under mounting criticism over its human rights record especially after passing an anti-gay propaganda law earlier this year that critics say curtails the rights of homosexuals.

On Sunday, German president Gauck became the first European head of state to announce he would not be attending the Games at the Russian Black Sea resort.

He did not, however, say why he would not be attending but his decision was instantly welcomed as a “wonderful gesture” by several human rights groups as well as the German government’s human rights commissioner.

Preparations for Russia’s first winter Olympic Games that are expected to cost more than $50 billion have been overshadowed by the controversy triggered by the law as well as the arrests of Greenpeacemembers and members of punk protest band Pussy Riot.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said several times that gay athletes are welcome in Russia and that no discrimination will be tolerated. He has said the law is needed to protect young people.

Russia also faces security challenges as Sochi is next to its restive North Caucasus region, which is disrupted by almost daily violence from an Islamist insurgency rooted into two Chechen wars.