Seven thoughts on Vlad’s Olympics in Sochi

1. Russia’s intransigence surrounding the growing humanitarian catastrophe in Syria is of far greater geopolitical importance than anything happening at Sochi.

2. Russia’s role in the ongoing unrest in Ukraine is of far greater geopolitical importance than anything happening at Sochi.

3. Politically speaking, the Olympics have been good for voices of Russian dissent, with Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Pussy Riot members having been released and once again vocal. Sure, they were released in a political move to quell criticism of the country’s Vladimir Putin-owned judiciary system. But they’re out, finally.

4. If Putin wants to spend $51 billion on the Olympics – as much as all the other Winter Olympics combined, apparently – all the better. Russia is a major American rival and antagonist. The total, corruption-padded tab amounts to more than half the country’s annual defense outlay of $90 billion, and it’s cash poorly spent, as the New Yorker’s James Surowiecki explains. The events are driving the  development a relative backwater into an attractive destination. But who’s really going to visit after the closing ceremony?

5. The $51 billion amounts to just 2 percent of the country’s GDP. Putin can afford it.

6. Olympics do nothing for a country’s reputation once the games’ curtain closes. Do you feel differently about the United Kingdom because of their Olympics? China? Norway? Italy? In the world’s eyes Russia will still be an authoritarian-run, oligarch-owned, press-squelching, natural-resource-fueled terrorist magnet.

7. We should enjoy the show. It’s a huge party thrown at someone else’s house, after all.