Just as the Kremlin told Russians they’d do great at the Vancouver Olympiad and turned out to be lying shamelessly, the Kremlin’s claims about being able to conduct a successful Olympiad four years from now in Sochi (a beach resort!) are equally dishonest.  You can see the failure coming just by walking into a Russian souvenir shop.

In a brutally frank essay Alexei Bayer, writing in the Moscow Times, exposes the fundamental fraud that is the Sochi games, and the possible silver lining of holding the Olympics in Russia:  That Russia may be finally, totally, exposed before the slack-jawed world:

On March 5, individual voters, observers and candidates from CPRF (Communist Party of the Russian Federation), LDPR (Liberal-Democratic Party of Russia), "Edinaya Rossiya" United Russia), and self-nominees began and continue sending their collective and individual applications to the President of the Russian Federation demanding to cancel early elections in Sochi. They find them illegal.

In Sochi, by Olympiad-2014, every interested person can learn English free of charge. This was announced at today's press conference by Sochi Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov.

According to his version, "the target programme 'Sochi - Hospitable City' has funds enabling townspeople to study English on the free-of-charge basis." "Besides, additional funds to this end will be assumed in the city budget," Mr Pakhomov has added.