Looking back and comparing the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Izvestia columnist Maxim Sokolov writes that surprisingly, the ‘free press’ is much angrier today than it was then. And why might that be? According to Sokolov, it is because Vladimir Putin personifies these Olympic Games, and this time, the West isn’t boycotting.
For Izvestia, a sports averse Maxim Sokolov writes in part:
Each and every initial Olympics cost estimate has been grossly underestimated. That has been especially true in modern times, when relatively simple Olympics gave way to more pompous Games. Commercialism without theft is like a wedding night without a bride.
Comparing the pre-Olympics press of the summer of 1980 (the “free” press, we’re not talking about yes men) to the winter of 2014, one cannot help but arrive at the unexpected conclusion that today’s free press is a lot angrier. In 1980, most Western countries boycotted the Moscow Games, which resulted in a less accusatory frenzy.
Why spew vitriol and restless denunciations when you’re not going anyway? It just didn’t make sense. Since today there is no boycott and attention needs to be channeled, condemnation of the usual flaws that emerge at every Olympics, which are associated with mass gatherings of people, is more heated and pointed than during the totalitarian years.
Perhaps this is due to the persona of the current leading Olympic figure, V. V. Putin [Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin], who is perceived as the engine and culprit behind the Sochi metamorphosis – far more than L. I. Brezhnev was during the 1980 Games. When the personification is that strong – and just as this leader is preparing to taste his long-awaited triumph, the desire to report that the triumphator has bricks falling from the ceiling onto spectators’ heads is only natural; and if they really do fall, it is treated like an Easter miracle.
Psychologically, this is an understandable mechanism, but practically, critics of the regime attach greater importance to the Olympics climax than the Russian leaders themselves.
In 1980, the stakes were probably even higher than today. The 1980 Games – if they had fully succeeded – would have served as a certificate of rehabilitation within polite society. Kremlin leaders probably didn’t enjoy the Olympic boycott, but one cannot say that they found it utterly depressing and demoralizing. Not at all. It was an unpleasantness and nothing more.
It isn’t clear why the free press’ current Olympic pandemonium should have a more devastating effect on the Russian leadership this time. V. V. Putin’s contempt for those who advocate on behalf of the “global community” (not always unjustified) is well known. So why would he break down and stumble out crying inconsolably now?
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