Annals of Russian Hypocrisy: The Sochi Scam
Filed under: Russia
Writing in the Moscow Times, hero journalist and radio talk show host Yulia Latynina has the following to say about the International Olympic Committee recently awarding the 2014 Olympic Games to Sochi, Russia:
Looking back, Russia had no real chance of winning this contest because Olympic officials gave Sochi the lowest possible rating. The main argument against Sochi was that every Olympic facility has to be built from scratch. Moreover, no one has an idea how to solve transportation problems. Imagine this: Putin flies to Guatemala City to attend the IOC meeting. He personally meets with each IOC member. Nonetheless, the members of the committee decide against Sochi based on the low rating given by the experts. If this happened, Russians would have cried: "Again the West has offended us. See how much the West hates us? The evil hand of the imperialists of the Fourth Reich have reached Sochi."
But, of course, the IOC ignored the realities of Sochi's total lack of fitness for the games (you can't fly directly to Sochi from the West; traveling to Sochi from Moscow is a nightmare of slow, fetid train compartments or rickety, terrifying Russian domestic airplaines). It ignored the proximity of Sochi to Chechnya and the obvious security risks that presents (Beslan and Dubrovka were apparently not events the IOC is aware of). It ignored the fact that Sochi is a beach resort, incapable of providing a classic winter village ambiance to the games such as they usually have. It ignored Russia's pandemic corruption, authoritarianism, crime (Russia has the 5th highest murder rate in the entire world) and poverty.
And having done all that, what thanks does the West receive? As Latynina notes, Russians would have condemned the West in the strongest, most paranoid terms if they'd been denied the games, but now that the games have been awarded to them, do we see gratitude and shows of friendship from Russia? Are words of praise pouring out towards the West? Are Russian papers and TV pundits now proclaiming that they misjudged the West and calling for changes? Are they apologizing? Hardly. Russia instead announced a plan to station offensive missiles in Kaliningrad, on Europe's border, so as to overwhelm any defensive missile systems Europe might install, and a plan to unilaterally pull out of the conventional force limitation treaty with Europe, all while pursuing reckless and massive increases in defense spending. It also refused categorically to cooperate in the investigation of the murder of dissident Alexander Litvinenko or the poisoning of Ukrainian president Victor Yushchenko. In other words, Russia gets the Olympics and G-8 membership (maybe even admission to the WTO), and in return the West gets more of the same: hostility, hatred, and efforts to undermine the West's security.
This kind of hypocrisy spells certain doom for neo-Soviet Russia, just as it did for the USSR.
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