Yesterday the sports part officially got started in Sochi, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics.  There is now team figure skating (I have no idea what the logic behind that is), a handful of new medal events (slopestyle, which is a new sport in snowboarding, is now an event), and the official opening ceremony will be later today.  This is the first time that Russia has hosted the Olympic Games since the fall of the Soviet Union (the 1980 Summer Games in Moscow), and but for Vladimir Putin schmoozing the IOC, these games would be most likely taking place in Salzburg, Austria (the other runner-up was Pyeongchang, South Korea, which ended up being awarded the 2018 Winter Olympics).

After the initial flurry of bad PR out of Sochi, I’m sure the IOC might be rethinking that decision.  Here are just a few things that are making Sochi look silly and unprepared:

– The media hotels are unfinished, and lack a lot of amenities.  Like, say, safe drinking water.  The ability to flush toilet paper.  Shower curtains.  And that’s if you even HAVE a hotel room.  But don’t worry!  Russian officials who are in charge of the Olympic preparations say that the western press is totally exaggerating – because they have cameras in the hotel bathrooms and KNOW that they work!  And they will know if the media keeps complaining, because anyone who uses public wifi in Sochi will automatically be hacked.

– The now-widespread news that the stray dogs of Sochi are being rounded up to be euthanized.

– The pretty well-established fact that this will be the most expensive Olympics ever – thanks to the rampant corruption that has taken their cut of the money.  In fact, the rumor now exists that the Games themselves are now so underfunded that the government has been getting pillows for the athletes from Sochi residents.

– There is a terror threat in Sochi, and now all liquids are being banned on flights to Russia because of reports that terrorists may try to use chemicals, concealed in toothpaste tubes, to construct a “dirty bomb” to bring a passenger jet down.

Vladimir Putin is heavily invested in making the Sochi Games a success in the eyes of the world.  But so far, the biggest stories out of Sochi so far have nothing to do with sports.  Hopefully, that will change as the opening ceremony goes forward and more competitions are held, but the warnings of chess champion Garry Kasparov should warn us all about how the image of Sochi really is nothing but smoke and mirrors.

I hope the journalists in Sochi complaining about a lack of doorknobs & wifi pay as much attention to the lack of free speech & elections.

In two weeks Games will be over & journos will go home w funny stories. Russians will be left with mess, debt, & the same crooks & thugs.