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Guest Post: Russia’s Potemkin Olympic Village
With reporters stunned by Sochi's unreadiness and athletes now quitting individual events on the lack of preparedness of the snow, the Winter Olympics in Russia is off to a less than stellar start. The last time Russia hosted the Olympics – the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow - the Soviet Union was a superpower, stagnant but stable. Not so today, notes Nina Khruschcheva; Putin’s Russia is weak, tawdry, and corrupt – and underserving as an Olympic host. The atmosphere surrounding the Sochi Games reflects many of Russia’s worst traits. In the immortal words of former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, describing the country’s economic transition of the 1990’s: “We hoped for the best, but things turned out as usual.”
Authored by Nina Khruscheva, originally posted at Project Syndicate,
Remember the year 2007? Russia was starting to look like a world power again. Its economy was growing at a record 8.5% annual rate. Political life had stabilized. Support for President Vladimir Putin was stratospheric. The decade-long Chechen rebellion seemed to have been suppressed. And, to top it off, the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2014 Winter Games to Russia’s Black Sea resort, Sochi.
In many respects, it was a strange choice of venue: sunny Sochi has beautiful mountains but little or no snow. It is also 850 miles south of Moscow, with few direct flights from Europe, while the trip from the United States can involve up to four legs.
But in 2007, Russians were becoming more optimistic about their future. Addressing the Olympic Committee, Putin argued that awarding Russia the Games would not only allow it to showcase its post-Soviet achievements; it would also help the country through its political and economic transition. Nothing seemed too difficult for Putin, even mouthing unnecessary democratic platitudes for an Olympic committee whose members had already awarded the 2008 Summer Olympics to Beijing.
But, once construction got underway, the realities of modern Russia could not be so easily hidden. The colossal project, which cost more than $50 billion – more than all previous Winter Olympics combined – was expected to turn Sochi into a sporting paradise, packed with arenas and a new airport. Instead, corruption and construction accidents have plagued preparations, with hotels still unfinished just days before the opening ceremony.
Delay and waste are common in Olympic preparations (Greece in 2004 is an obvious example, and Brazil in 2016 appears to be experiencing similar problems). But Russia is proving to be an unsuitable host for other reasons.
For starters, there are concerns about Putin’s own political legitimacy. His controversial and unconstitutional re-election to a third presidential term was condemned internationally and triggered anti-government protests across Russia.
Putin responded to those he considers political enemies by arresting and jailing protesters, including the all-girl rock band Pussy Riot, following “show trials” (with the Olympics approaching, there have been recent “show pardons”). Such episodes have contributed to a general air of intolerance across Russia, fueled in no small part by Kremlin-incited chauvinism. A government sponsored anti-gay propaganda law, which indiscriminately criminalizes same-sex couples, has caused outrage abroad. Local activists have even advised gay athletes not to display signs of their sexual orientation while in Russia.
Similarly, though the Olympics should be an occasion for national pride, foreign – and in particular American – athletes have been told to avoid showing their team colors when outside the grounds. In fact, they have been warned not to wander beyond Sochi’s “ring of steel” security perimeter and the watchful gaze of black-and-gray-clad police officers, even though Olympians typically like to explore local sights.
None of this engenders a sense of Olympic solidarity and international friendship. And it gets worse. The authorities must also contend with threats from Islamist insurgents from Chechnya, who are now operating in other North Caucasian republics, a mere 200 miles from Sochi. The “black widows” – wives of Islamist fighters killed in the Kremlin’s “pacification” campaign – are believed to be preparing retaliatory suicide missions at airports, train stations, and on buses.
The last time Russia hosted the Olympics – the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow – the US and its allies staged a boycott in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. And yet the Soviet Union was a superpower, stagnant but stable. Its totalitarian secrecy, gargantuan military-industrial complex, ever-present KGB handlers, and apparent disdain for material comforts (at least for ordinary Russians) gave the Communist hegemon a perverse mystique that made even a simple visit to Red Square a trip to remember. However much the country was hated or feared, one could not deny that is was a major player on the world stage.
Not so today. Putin’s Russia is weak, tawdry, and corrupt – and underserving as an Olympic host. The atmosphere surrounding the Sochi Games reflects many of Russia’s worst traits. In the immortal words of former Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, describing the country’s economic transition of the 1990’s: “We hoped for the best, but things turned out as usual.”
Even assuming that the Sochi Games pass off successfully, and that, despite the security restrictions and official bigotry, athletes and visitors enjoy their stay, will Russia’s brief display of national pride really be worth the financial and political cost? Or will Russians wake up six months from now and say, “Yes, our country has a fancy ski resort – at the beach.”
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Brazil summer games will be worse.
they have the Corcovado! What god wills will be!
I thought the POTEMKIN VILLAGE IDIOT lived at 1600 Pennsylvania
Potemkin Village People is live in San Francisco, no?
This just in, Putin challenges entire IOC to a sambo cage match on a floating platform in the Aral Sea. To be televised on RT after the Max Keiser Report.
Tyler, throw me a Bitcoin article! I'm freaking dying up here man!!
Hey, it's only been about 10 minutes since that wanker Jim Sinclair or King World News had an article about gold...check 'em out! (LOL)
Hey thanks, fonestar used to get his doom fix from KWN but since he moved onto the harder bitshit it's just not working anymore.
You're a virtual legend, Fonestar.
political legitimacy what the f*** is that? as if f****** Obama had any political legitimacy? I'm not defending Putin but holy f****** s***.
Corrupt? Russia is corrupt? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone. I'm already sick of the Western media anti-Russia crap. what they really want to do is make it okay for us to go to war and I really don't want to do that.
This is what I'd expect to see if I read the Huff'n'Post or msm-news.con. Just another anti-Putin smear job. He must have really pissed off some people when he prevented Obama's Syrian invasion. John Kerry and "Prince" Bandar probably still feel their asses stinging.
don't know if anyone posted this and I missed
BUT have you seen TIME'S Winter Olympic cover? and the imagery? and the headline in the actual article?
http://www.insidesocal.com/tomhoffarth/files/2014/01/1101140210_600.jpg
which country owns PRAVDA?
has any other Time Olympic cover (and article) gone to such political lengths?
This Snowden thing has really ticked somone off
TIME still exists?
What is it down to, about 12 pages (of mostly photographs) per issue now?
STOP TALKING IN THE THIRD PERSON.
You only lend credence to those who think you're schitzophrenic.
fonestar is managed by a PAL.
And massaged by a palm?
Pungent Ass Leak?
That was your MOST IMPORTANT COMMENT EVER!!
Funny how RT or Max hasn't had a word to say on this mess. They know which side their bread is buttered on. All the media are whore - the only question is which side they are working for.
I have nothing against Max K. You always have to hear perspectives. I'm just trying to imagine the progression here, and in my mind, Putin shoving the wads of IOC cash down his pants and gesturing that they come and take it back is feasible.
Nikita Khrushchev is Nina Khrushcheva's biological great-grandfather.
She seems to like Mayor DeBlassio.
http://ninakhrushcheva.wordpress.com/2014/01/03/welcome-new-york-mayor/
I smell a rat.
Yeah. The anti-Russian rhetoric has ramped up to epic levels. A plethora of articles to point out every problem and "look how bad it is over there". I could care less about Olympics really, and if anyone thinks it's unsafe (or you just don't like the host country), don't go or boycott.
Really I think there's a western cohort that is completely terrified of Putin and will make every attempt to oust him. Raping Russia once was not enough for the Larry Summers crowd, gotta try and do it again.
The Measure of National Intelligence:
NOT hosting the Olympics
NOT spending your citizens money & resources on a short term circus.
@Boris
Only the policeman & the construction worker... The Indian moved back to the reservation & the soldier now works in the OW BUM A administration as a 'joint' chief...
Hey there is no snow in Tahoe this year and the Alps aint much better. This article is jive. Russia has much less national debt and a ton of oil. This lady is a Zionist plant. Ignore her.
Ignoring won't make this very expensive Potemkin go away. Won't make the region less violent either. Or make the choice of location any better...
[but sure, you are still free to get lost in rhetorics]
Thats gayciss
Mandy Potemkin Village?
FORWARD SOVIET!
Hey, Moochelle! Potemkin Village called, they want their idiot back. He out on the golf course?
Hey! Ease up! Obama created 4 new jobs today. Sasha and Melia have to make their beds and fold their clothes.
Well ~ to accomplish that, he probably had to send 10 illegal aliens packing & ADDED $10 billion 'allowance' money to the national debt...
~~~
Your share is due in APRIL
Anything can be made to look great on TeeVee.
Yes, Boris is put photo of family member on Television next to antenna and is look much much better.
Boris must sleep with no pillow. Putin camandeer all pillow for ahtlete hotel.
In America, you are sleep with head on pillow... In USSR, pillow is...
Never you are mind, analogy is beyond limit of elasticity.
...you are put to sleep with pillow on face(?)
No, no, that is gram-ma-ma of a frick'n American president elect.
That sweet lady had too many memories...
The "Putin Put" is in!!!
European and i'm a Putin
USSA is not fear, Potemkin village is come to your town too!
Is only real growth industry, no?
It's allready there. Just take a look at the lipstick flip house inventory.
You are make reference of International Houses of Pancake?
i thought that was a 911 collapse theory
That is remind Boris of joke...
In Russia, when gay man is sick in hospital, is diet of pizza and pancake ("hotcake" in English?). New intern in hospital is ask "why is special diet?" Dietary attendant is answer, "is only thing slide under door." Badumpda!
This article reads like left wing extremist propaganda.
Russia pumps 10.7 million bpd of the good stuff. Nothing else matters.
Besides, vodka can make any town a great town.
Ura!
Besides,
"Nina L. Khrushcheva is a professor in the Graduate Program of International Affairs at the New School in New York, and a senior fellow at the World Policy Institute, where she directs the Russia Project. She previously taught at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and is the author of Imagining Nabokov: Russia Between Art and Politics and the forthcoming book The Lost Khrushchev: A Journey into the Gulag of the Russian Mind."
Sounds credible to me... /s
Good research dood.
Nothing in this world is quite so useless and dangerous as academics with an agenda.
My heart will soar with joy when their pensions get cut.
Propaganda, but even though it's coming from the New School, it's not left wing, so much as USSA statist. The Ministry of Truth updates Mockingbird and drags out a Commie Cunt suffering Stockholm Syndrome with her new jailer to make their case... So as you said- Russia exports oil, while the US exports Uncle Ben's and Aunt Ja'Yellen's QEasiest Two-Ply. Both products have certain traits that "may" be desirable to consumers. However, human civilization can survive without the shit wipes, it can't survive without the BTUs. Other than that, the difference between the two fascist kleptocracies seems to amount to griping about the paint job in the slaves' quarters and porn quality on the boob tube. After Boston it's kind of hard to argue that slaves in the American gulag don't beg for the long arm of the law up their asses when the bombs start going off, or that the NSA is any more respective of the serfs privacy than the FSB. 50 billion in Shovel Ready Olympic graft vs $700+ billion in Shovel Ready Green Jobs graft (and that's not even counting the bankers' TARP and QE cuts). Shit stinks, it takes a special kind of stupid to think that one is exempt from that truth.
Hard to separate truth from fiction since the spin machine here hit new RPM highs in the wake of the Snowden defection. Glasnost is certainly dead on this side of the really big pond. Probably ditto on the other side as well, if it was ever more than a mirage.
Yeah, but it doesn;t change the fact that Putin is nothing but a thug fronting the oligarchs relying on that oil and NG....
unlike our own leaders
Would you really swap any president of the past 50 years for Putin?
Straight up??
I some how doubt it...
....damn ISP...
I am even more impressed by nearby Sugarloaf Mountain, erupting from the water like an immense, green turd being expelled from the bowels of the Earth... This vision also absolutely reeks of international brotherhood and goodwill.
Bad omen for Brazil?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/southamerica/brazil/10581518/Rios-Christ-the-Redeemer-statue-damaged-by-lightning-strike.html
What can I say for idol worship ? It's pagan.
Mmmm...Corcovado makes great Guarcamole.
common, athletes quitting due to lack of snow preparation? it was a pansy US snow boarder that hurt his wrist:
Kidnapping will be the new sport.
This year's football/soccer World Cup in Brazil looks like it might be fucked up, too.
Detroit would have been a better choice than this Ruskie armpit.
Now, now, du musst die Kirche im Dorf lassen. ANY fucking place would be better than Detroit. Any. Even Kabul...or Cleveland.
Debtroit
Leave Clevland alone you genetically deficient specimen. Everyone has heard of smoke on the water, but C'land had fire on the water.
"Brazil summer games will be worse."
Naw, wait till they get to japan.
Peru’s Beaches Littred With Hundreds Of Dead Dolphins – Again:
(for those who think going south will be an escape)
http://beforeitsnews.com/environment/2014/02/perus-beaches-littred-with-hundreds-of-dead-dolphins-again-2492126.html
'Syndrome of denying radiation damage': Fukushima disappears from global headlines:
http://robinwestenra.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/fukushima-out-of-headlines.html
50 Reasons We Should Fear the Worst from Fukushima:
http://impactglassman.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/harvey-wasserman-for-seven-decades.html
‘Mutant’ lavender king crab found:
http://nypost.com/2014/01/29/mutant-lavender-king-crab-found-in-russian-haul/
Main reasons Russia is weak:
The Unknown Putin. Part 1http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCU4C6ajgBI
But...who cares? Well maybe someone does but I wonder why.
As for Potemkin Villages...they are everywhere!
Long Live the Czar, the Kaiser and the Prez.
I guess the top 1% of the Russian society (those who own the government and corporations) didn't "invest" enough in the Olympics.
please stop saying top 1% ... those who own russia are more like top 0.001% ...
VERY TRUE!!!
Here's a little bit of proof:
http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/oct2008/russian-jewish-oligarchs.html
Wow. I never expected to see such a harsh article against Putin and Russia at ZH during Olympic time. I always thought from past comments that people here see Russia as a superior place to live, work and operate as compared to the US. Not from this article......
No one on ZH has ever said that. I just want to point that out. It is unfair to put words into ZH posters mouths and ask for them to defend them. I read ZH, nobody said those words, why do you claim that they have. This is amature debating tactics. State Department?
No, he's right. I remember a few stories discussing how Putin was making Obama look like a wuss, then a few comments suggested life over there was better.
Your mom goes to college.
"I get my hair cut at the "Cut'n Corral"
Putin does make Obama look like a pussy because he is a pussy.
not that he needs the assistance
There were comparisons between Putin and Obama. Putin takes the gold hands down. Never saw anyone say they want to live under Putin, just that they thought he kicked Obama in the oysters pretty good.
Sorry if I am wrong. I was speaking to the impression given that this form of talk was general on this board. I honestly can't speak for every post made, I have yet to see Russian life praised as better than American. But it is all relative, if I am wrong, I have no trouble admitting it.
Why would you think that? Putin gets cheered only because he exposes US hypocrisy -- he stuck Obama in the eye when he gave Snowden asylum and when he upset Obama's Syrian war plans.
"Go USA Figure Skating Team", or something.....
"I never expected to see such a harsh article against Putin and Russia at ZH..."
After a "hands off Ukraine, it's Putin's" article a few days ago? It is good to keep some balance...
Sochi was a $50B heist, it's as simple as that.
The Olympics have a bad reputation.
Tokyo 2020 is the best so far in the future.
Respect to Jesse Owen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jesse_Owen
Most of the children in Japan will be dead or dying in 6 years, along with a sizable chunk of the elderly.
There will be no Olympics in Japan.
FYI - Keep an eye on your white blood cell count. If (when) it starts to drop, you're fucked.
Straight from Rothschilds Project Syndicate. Very valuable. / sarc
I am sick of the mainstream media bashing Russia over these Olympics, I have never been to Russia am not a supporter of Russia's current regime, but give it a fucking rest. Young adults and teenagers are going to play games and take part in sports, just shut the fuck up and go play, you're going to another country for fucks sake.
As a teenager I was a middle distance runner and would have given quite a lot to have the chance to go and live and train in Kenya or Ethiopia, I had an older friend who did for a year and he lived literally in huts in rural Kenya (had a great slideshow in the days before powerpoint) with the locals who were happy to take him.
Fuck the food not being American, fuck off that your accomodations aren't the Ritz, are you there to pose or compete like men? Fucking pansies, pussies and faggots all of them...and I don't give a shit either that Russians can't propagandize being gay to minors, am I supposed to fucking care? Pampered losers all of them who jump on the bashing Russia bandwagon!!!
A nice post Global Hunter, and I agree. I must point out, that US media and it's corporate owners, along with the USG who are purchased by corporate money are hell bent on an all out cold war. Perhaps even a hot war, recent article in mainstream media in Washington claim that Russia is preparing an invasion of Ukraine after the olympics. This cold war has gotten very warm since Russia defended Ossetia and then refused to sanction a US inavsion of SYria. American Neo-Cons are Hopping Mad! They are wild with rage at be cut short in their activities by Russia. Now Ukraine is burning, we have a host of propaganda stories all over media. The bully boys in Washington are enraged that Russia is hosting an international event, they will do all in their power to smear it.
Are their problems at the Olympics, yes, there always are. But I smell the USG all over this smear campaign. There is a great battle coming as the US neo-con movement looks to crush Russia, they are buring mad after Ossetia and Syria. Mark my words, this story will be THE story of the coming few years. Stay tuned, Articles smearing Russia will be everywhere in US mainstream media. They are agents of the USG.
Agree Jack, its propaganda and its so obvious what is going on and where this is headed (as you describe in your response) a war. I thought the athletes and the Olympics were supposed to be about coming together and peace, and even the athletes themselves are bitching too stupid to realize they're just useful idiots talking up a very evil agenda (power and control over the whole world).
Great comments from both GH and Jack. It stands out like dog's balls that the sociopathic/psychopathic thugs running USG are at it again with another propaganda campaign using their MSM propaganda arm. When will the sheeple wake up to these crazies?
They are also harboring Snowden and Putin has been schooling Obama on the intenational stage. Mommy pants probably got his feelings hurt.
Ah yes, the Neo-Cohens(cons).
They're very good friends with the Blitz(kreig)ers.
At least you're honest about the use of the term. So many say Neo-Con when they just mean "Jew".
No, there are plenty of white Christian neo-cons. They happen to also desire the ascendancy of a NWO with a strong Jewish 'flavor'.
What's scary are the Christians who believe that Armegeddon must occur for the Messiah to return, as well as the Jews who believe that Armeggedon must occur for the Messiah to come in the first place. They have no compunction for merging their beliefs, and sparing no expense towards bringing on Armeggedon themselves. Most likely the worst of any 'death cult' in history. They truly wake up every day with the desire to engulf the world - especially the Middle East - in nuclear flames.
And plenty of these people fill the Neo-Con ranks.
The Japanese have their own version of this death cult - the Mahikari:
'Fukushima and the Minister of Human Extinction'
“Although Ningen (sub humans – that’s you and me) eagerly seek peace and coexistence and dislike the atomic bomb, the production of fire balls in this world cannot be stopped. God will make man produce the fireballs and bullets…they (that’s you and me again) are just like radish to be grated.” P 188-190 revealed August 15, 1963.
“This is the End of the World.” P 138-139 revealed August 20, 1961.
“Earth must be burnt away with the Ball of Fire in order for God to descend from Heaven… and carry out the Art of beating them to a pulp.” P. 159 revealed August 5, 1962.
http://alltheemperorsmen.com/fukushima.html
'All The Emperor’s Men – The Cult Of Nuclear Fascism Has Arrived!'
Once tipped to be a Japanese Prime Minister, Shintaro Ishihara, was the long-standing Mayor of the greater Tokyo region. He reigned over a densely populated region of over 20 million people. He loves a bit of controversy. He calls all foreigners in Japan ‘niggers’. He recently declared that the recent devastating March 2011 tsunami in Japan was a warning from god because of the Japanese peoples’ collective greed. God was truly unhappy that day. He says women who live past their childbearing days are sinful. He also says Japan should dispense with its pacifist post-war constitution and re-arm itself. He says a lot of things. He’s famous for his inflammatory and ultra-nationalist books, essays, speeches, activism and sentiments. He’s often in the news and he’s got history.
He unexpectedly resigned from his parliamentary seat when it was revealed that he was a financier and gave political support to the murderous Aum Shinrikyo cult - the cult that released deadly sarin gas in the Tokyo subway in 1995 which killed dozens and injured thousands of Tokyo commuters. It was a time when the Aum cult was procuring nuclear weaponry and other arms from the cash-strapped and crumbling Soviet Empire supposedly to bring about a planned global Armageddon. This is well documented. It’s a known fact.
He now leads a group of Japanese hard-line ultra-nationalists, the New Restoration Party, who are wanting to re-assert Japan’s perceived global superiority, i.e. a global theocracy under the divine leadership of the Japanese God Emperor; something that the Japanese militarists tried to achieve during W.W. I I. Their catch cry was and still is ‘all the world under the one roof’ which is religion/politico speak for a global Japanese theocracy.
http://alltheemperorsmen.com/nuclear_fascism.html
Be very afraid of the people running the world. They are not normal human beings. They are something 'different'.
Well, outside the US the USG has zero credibility. Probably inside the US as well to a large degree.
So who cares what US corporate media sells to Americans? It's an international event.
USG can be hopping mad about lacking opportunity to go to war but so be it. Nobody outside the US wants to support a US led military conflict anywhere.
The US is broke and has nothing to show for recently in terms of military achievements. Why stick with them? Putin on the other hand is winning the war with words and some sensible actions. He's not going into Ukraine, mark my words.
Zionista's want Syria/Iran and Russian banking back and are getting their butts kicked. Of course the accomdations aren't going to be good enough.
I think it stopped being about sports after Bannister broke the 4.
I did a jog/run as a teenager where the Iffley Road track is (site of Bannister's sub 4) and around some of the paths at Oxford, that was special :)
That is pretty special, GH. Never got the chance yet, but I'll have to run a mile at Univ of Oregon's track in Pre's name the next time I'm up traveling in Oregon.
It stopped being about the celebration of sport and athleticism and all about the show. Now it's no longer about the show, but rather the ownership and licensing of sales and merchandise and usage of olympic logos or terms (remember what happened to store owners around London).
I used to go over to the USSR quite often on biz.
There does seem to be something in the Russian nature that
makes everything overly cumbersome.
I'm sure rube goldberg and heath robinson were really Russians.
Just how their society runs ,no matter who is in charge.
You would think "liberals" would be against an event where there are winners and losers. The regular distractions require the masses to call or text for their favourite person who either cannot sing or dance, now the distraction task requires they wave a flag and clap like an autistic child at the fair. I love humans.
Sidney Crosby, captain of Canada's Olympic hockey team, would probably agree with you:
Nice to see the Russians trying to catch up with the corrupt peodophiles who run England.
Scratch that, the Russians are no-where near in-bred enough to catch up with cunts who have fucked this country. Including the fat cunt camoron and his in-bred mate johnson.
The Russians should take some lessons off the pricks who reside in the HoP.
Bunch of child molesting cunts.
;-)
Peodophiles? If we are really looking for them, I would start in Rome, and we all know where. Their record of abuse is mind blowing, and the cover ups are epic.
Actually, far exceeding the 2% offenders for Catholics are the 50% for the "Raping Rabbis". Also, it is interesting how the Kosher corporate media so often like to portray normal country folk as "inbred hillbillies, when their own tribe, secular and religious, are one of the most inbred and dysgenic groups in existence. No doubt they are masters of projection.
http://iamthewitness.com/listeners/Jewish.child.molesters.that.are.never...
http://www.vice.com/read/the-child-rape-assembly-line-0000141-v20n11
This explains quite a bit of their behaviors, the rest can be attributed to the insane teachings of the Talmud.
http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/.premium-1.560128
http://www.rense.com/general79/talmud.htm
Hey leave Woody out of this!
A bunch of kids went missing from an orphanage in Canada. Something to do with the Queen. Google it.
There's a reason Savile spent so much time with Charles.
Looks like someone just wandered off the hat4uk reservation for a web walkabout.
It will be worth, cuz I heard about many underground special installations hidden in the cost.
Those will help protect crimea in case of some troubles from outside.
This is a pretty awful post - nothing really gained from reading this despite the author's clear disdain for Russia today.
gay viewpoint, probably a gay author
LGBT is over the top moulding opinion in America and the West
if it doesn't fit the LGBT narrative, it's anti LGBT as their words are holier than any gospel
I call this entire article BS.
"For starters, there are concerns about Putin’s own political legitimacy"
Right, we (whoever that is) don't like Putin, so Russia should not have their Olympics. Give me a break... And what's wrong with spending 50 billions of their money for it ? According to the modern economic theory shoveled out every day by such economic stalwarts as the FED, Treasury, and CNBC, this is nothing but a wonderful opportunity for growth !
Bernanke's Fed prints... yes prints out of thin air... $85 billion / mth. So $50Billion is 3 weeks printing... at least they have soemthing to show for it.... all we got in the US is ...Yellen.
Shaun White pointed to Potyomkinskiye slopestyle in Sochi...declared it not safe...
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/olympics/sochi/2014/02/05/shaun-white-withdraws-sochi-slopestyle/5220453/
P'yanyy!Pussy ! (... not Galore though...)
"KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia" lol
This is bafflingly crude Westprop formula 1A. "arresting and jailing protesters" ... "Pussy Riot" ... "criminalizes same-sex couples" ... "Putin’s Russia is weak, tawdry, and corrupt". The Economist does a better job of it.
http://russialist.org/comment-on-the-economist-editorial-entitled-the-tr...
It is really, really sad if one is to expect such stuff as this here from now on.
I'm waiting for the daily Diplomat article.
"arresting and jailing protesters" - because that soooo doesn't happen in the US or other "western" countries
I used to look down on Russia due to the occassional killing of independent investigative journalists. Disturbingly, that's a trend that appears to have come to these fair shores (or perhaps it was always here, and in my brainwashed naivete, I just didn't realize it).
None of this engenders a sense of Olympic solidarity and international friendship. And it gets worse.
You think....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympic_Games_scandals_and_controversies
The Olympics on the main seem to be anything but concerning friendship. It is big my cock is bigger than yours crossing of swords on an international stage.
Not so today. Putin’s Russia is weak, tawdry, and corrupt – and underserving as an Olympic host. The atmosphere surrounding the Sochi Games reflects many of Russia’s worst traits.
And what traits are those, please elaborate.
Wow - what a olimpic spirit? Amazing!!!!
Pretty silly article with bunch non-truth facts. For example: Sochi not have snow but mountains around Sochi have, more than Voncuver 2010, and there will be open competitions. Putin have right for 3rd term, Russian constitution allow more than 2 terms but not in row. And that constitution creat western muppet friend Yeltsin. You remember that always drink men? Best friend of US. Yes, Putin also be good friend until 2003, when he took Yukos from oligharcs and huge oil reserves. Khodorkovsky want sell that huge reserves to Exxon. Than Putin become bad.
I can't belive what kind of socio-pathological behavior are now in US media around this games. If Putin is so weak why US so terrible want not to succeed OG or try every way in Ukraine or Syria to do something because Putin outmaneuver US in that places?
http://sports.yahoo.com/news/no-light-bulbs-no-shower-202446023.html
No one ever said the Chinese weren't ready.
I wish Brazil all the luck in the world...
"We Will Bury You"- N Khrushchev
"Russia is ready to host the games."- V Putin
Who knew that Soviet Dictators were so irrationally optimistic?
N Khrushchev, N Khruscheva. They are related (hence the Patty Hearst reference in my post).
Olympics are such a scam. About the only good thing Oblowhard did for the nation was lose his lame-ass olympic bid.
Don't watch TeeVee. The Olympics are one long commercial. The media picks darlings to attract eyeballs and skews all reports to support Merikan exceptionalism. PSH might have been stocking up smack for his Olympic run.
But Olympic hockey is quite simply the best sport going... I can´t help but watch.
I see now, this article was written by a west Ukrainian in the employ of the US State Department, do you really believe this to be a real article? It reads like the old USSR news stories about the USA. Nina is a plant, and she works for the Neo-Cons and she is well paid for this article. She is not fooling the world, though she can fool the USA people with ease. Nina, you clever girl, bet you just bought a new condo with US taxpayers money for writing this one. ZH has a right to print any article they please, so I have no issue with it being here, I like free expression, but I dare call this what it is. A hack piece of US propaganda by a really angry American Neo-Con.
Not really a neo-con. She is at the New School- a haven for rabid radicals, upest by the conservative bent of Putin´s Russia, because it represents the first real political alternative to the radical agenda that has come to dominate Western political thought.
She most certainly is a fellow traveller with the neocons - see my post below. I don't know if she's Jewish or not, and it doesn't matter - she got on the anti-Putin bandwagon early, when it became clear Russia, and not Jewish oligarchs, was going to control Russian natural gas resources. Sorry if that offends you, but that was a big part of the anti-Putin stuff from Jewish and neocon circles... they certainly didn't give a flying fuck about democracy or honest government, and if they go easy on the "Russian mob" which operates both in Russia, Ukraine, and Israel, it's because the Russian mob's leadership is largely Jewish.
Recall that the neocons started out as Leftists. They turned "right" and virulently anti-Russian over the issue of Russian Jewish emigration, needed by the Zios to build a Jewish majority Greater Israel. Pollard's info was sold to the Russians in exchange for allowing more of this emigration.
In other words, the neocons were not really left or right at heart, they were pro-Israel and anti-Russia
http://www.voltairenet.org/article178638.html
A lot of the fuckery in Chechnya was backed by both Saudis and, in all likelihood, pro-Israel neocons. I mean, that you had a handful of Jewish neocons suddenly concerned with "peace" in the Caucasus was certainly odd, and these weren't "Grand Chessboard" types, but people who wanted to weaken and destabilize Russia as a way to weaken Iran and Syria.
The American Committee for Peace in the Caucasus (formerly the American Committee for Peace in Chechnya) is a Freedom House initiative that bills itself as the ”only private, nongovernmental organization in North America exclusively dedicated to promoting the peaceful resolution of the Russo-Chechen war."[1] According to Freedom House, ACPC “coordinates with an international network of activists, journalists, scholars and nongovernmental organizations to advocate for and support human rights and rule of law, to monitor the upward trend of violence in the region, and to promote peace and stability in the North Caucasus.”[2] As of early 2013, the committee appeared to be largely defunct.
Founded in 1999 by U.S. liberal hawks and neoconservatives primarily interested in using the conflict in Chechnya to press an anti-Russian agenda, the ACPC eventually updated its name and broadened its focus after conflicts erupted between Russia and other parts of the Caucasus, including Ingushetia, Dagestan, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karachay-Cherkessia, and North Ossetia.[3]
In early 2013, the committee attracted attention when the suspects in the April 2013 Boston marathon bombing were identified as ethnic Chechens. Although early reports did not indicate that the suspects were driven by Chechen nationalist motivations, some writers questioned whether the FBI had improperly ignored warnings from Russian authorities that one of the alleged bombers had met repeatedly with a suspected terrorist leader in Dagestan.
A writer for Antiwar.com suggested that groups like ACPC had promulgated an anti-Russian bias in Washington that precluded serious consideration of Russian warnings about potential Chechen terrorists. "How did [the bombers] manage to evade the multi-billion dollar 'security apparatus, which was set up with so much fanfare after 9/11? The answer is to be found in the manipulations and odorous alliances dictated by our interventionist foreign policy, a throwback to the cold war era, which has deemed Russia an enemy and the Chechens the Good Guys.”[4]
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/American_Committee_for_Peace_in_C...
Johnny Cocknballs, Indeed! That post conforms with all I have learned about American Neo-cons. Like it or not, America's very powerful Jewish lobby, AIPAC, is an agent of Israel and international jewish organizations with several goals. Number 1 is to hold the USA as a virtual hostage to Israel's interests world wide. We fund them, arm them and give them diplomatic support in a world where nearly every nation sees Israel's war crimes for what they are. Yes, Putin moved out some major Jewish Oligarchs from postions of resource control in Russia. Mr. Putin is a typical strong Russian leader, the kind the west hates and fears. He intends to attack noboby, invade nobody, to trade with anyone, BUT to defend Russian interests and the Russian people. The heavy Jewish influence in the Multi Cultural, multi ethnic movement in Europe is buring with hate for Putin's defense of a Russia with limited and controlled immigration. They will take people, but only in a sense that they can intigrate into Russian society. The west hates this, the former liberal neo-cons hate this.
To be blunt, neo-cons hate Russia because Russia is Christian and will fight to defend a christian Russia, they are mostly of northern European stock, i.e. white people, but with a heavy mix of southern slaves and even tartars and turks. Russia has kicked out and controlled other major US corporations, many Jewish owned and controlled. Not making the west happy.
You're right on their role in immigration, and hypocrisy when it comes to a unicultural Israel. Barbara Spectre is a major example who doesn't make any sense apart from a coordinated Jewish effort to attack, for example, Sweden's Swedishness.
Alan Shatter in Ireland is one of the most interesting cases, though. He plainly is Jewish and internationalist first and "Irish" a distant second.
I certainly don't want to get in bed with any "white nationalists" who crow the loudest about it - my own ancestors on both sides were subject to a lot of fuckery from the English, and I'm not interested in their concept of "whiteness" at all, but it's pretty much plainly obvious there's a concerted effort to make European nations "multicultural" or eventual minorities in their own land while simultaneously espousing a Jews only Israel while simultaneously maintaining that Jews have a "right" to live anywhere they please, and exclusively in Israel - even to the point of ongoing ethnic cleansing of the natives...
Oh, and you're an "anti-Semite" if you suggest this seems like hypocrisy and horseshit.
Cute.
But you have to admire the massive brainwashing and stopthink this represents. The plan, such as there seems to be one, may well backfire in the end.
Now that's the ZH that I know!!!!!!
The Olympics are naught but venues for fraud, primping and propaganda. Advertising and circus.
I really cannot believe they haven't started the Fall Olympics, with synchronized leaf blowing and competitive day-hiking or the Spring Olympics, featuring cold water immersion endurance and slush tubing.
What are they waiting for?
Putin’s Russia is weak, tawdry, and corrupt – and underserving as an Olympic host.
Yes but of course!
At least the bitch saying it "demonstratively" towards her Russian leadership can say those things without reprisals of being put on a targeted list, imprisoned, tortured or "droned" like in the good 'ol factory of democratic principles in the U.S. of A.!
Just what the World needs more Coke, Pepsi, McDonalds and KFC to go along with genetically modified ingredients that goes in them. And if you "don't buy our shit" and go to the Olympics when we have them as the host COuntry an occupation might just be in your future!
This dubious title is only reserved for "hollowed out" corrupt and bankrupt Western soon-to-be ex-superpowers like the United States!
While I´m sure it upsets Nina and all her hyper-crazed radical friends at the New School that Putin has steared Russia on a conservative track and away from the rabid, crazed radicalism of the left in U.S. and Europe, the fact of the matter is Russia is not weak, tawdry, etc..., and Putin is very popular, precisely because he is a conservative politician in an age where the radical left controls most of Europe and the U.S. Putin has repeatedly outmanuevered the U.S.: in Syria, in the Ukraine, in Europe, in Cyprus, etc... . You know Putin is winning when his opponents are reduced to trying to turn corruption among contractors at Olympic building sites into political hit pieces. Well Nina, I will be watching hockey during the Olympics, and I will be cheering for Russia, precisely because it is the only nation there with a conservative leader who has defended Christianity.
You know Putin is winning when...
You see a photo of a hotel room showing that a curtain rod fell off. C'est dommage!
Pussy Riot...seriously?
At least Russia is stacking a lot of gold. Oh, so that's what this is all about.
I can't decide if this post is weak sauce or sour grapes.
It is a delightful blend of both. The bitter taste helps conceal the overwhelming stench.
"Remember the year 2007?"
I remember 2007, but I remember 2013 better. That was the year that "weak, tawdry, and corrupt" Russia, led by Putin, ass whipped and humiliated the mighty lone superpower known as the USA at every turn. Seems to be a trend forming. One thing I am pretty sure of, is that NO ONE will remember a crap spewing bitch by the name of Nina Khruscheva.
Nina Krapovaflowa
Yes as do I.
The "Dick" Cheney and G.W. certainly remember it with relish as does there protege "Michu" Saakashvili (power tie in mouth chewing nervously while simultaneously shitting self) in almost starting WWIII!
What I don't understand is why the U.S. couldn't whip up an earthquake for Sochi the way they timed it for the Beijing games? /sarc
Potemkin Village, isn't that where Obama films all his rallies?
Yes, so flimsy the people fall over!
Technically, Obama stages most of his films in the Potomac Village, which is essentially the same thing.