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As Olympics Arrive, Russia Experiences A Downturn

President Vladimir V. Putin delivered remarks ahead of the opening of the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. Pascal Le Segretain/Agence France-Presse Getty Images

 

MOSCOW After President Vladimir V. Putin delivered Russias successful pitch to host the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in English and a smattering of French, no less he declared it an international validation of the Russia that had emerged from the ruins of the Soviet Union.

It is, beyond any doubt, a judgment on our country, he said then, nearly seven years ago.

Now, as the first events begin, the Games have for Mr. Putin and his allies become a self-evident triumph of Russias will. The avalanche of criticism that has already fallen, from minor complaints about ill-prepared hotels and stray dogs to grave concerns about the costs, security and human rights, is being brushed away like snowflakes from a winter coat.

Its realization is already a huge win for our country, Dmitri N. Kozak, a deputy prime minister and one of Mr. Putins longest-standing aides, said in Sochi on Thursday. He went on to use a phrase attributed to Catherine the Great when she intervened to halt the court-martial of a general who had stormed an Ottoman fortress without orders in the 18th century: Victors are not judged.

The Olympic Games are a crowning moment for Mr. Putin, a chance to demonstrate anew his mastery of the global levers of power, but perhaps not for the country he governs. With Russias natural-resource dependent economy slowing as commodities prices fall, and with foreign investments drying up, the Kremlin has already signaled that it would have to cut spending. The $50 billion or so lavished on Sochi is becoming a political liability.

Lilia Shevtsova, an analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center, argued that the International Olympic Committee awarded the games to Sochi over Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea at a time when Mr. Putin was at the zenith of his powers in his second term but when the verdict on his legacy remained an open one. Many had been critical of his authoritarian instincts after he rose to power, including the tightening of news media and political freedoms and the war in Chechnya, but Russia had indisputably recovered from the chaos of the 1990s.

At that time, Russia was rising from its knees,  Ms. Shevtsova wrote in an essay on the centers website, whereas now in 2014 Russia has started its downward slide.

The stalling of the economy, despite the stimulus of Olympian spending, has raised worries about popular unrest directed at the Kremlin and a tightening of political freedoms in response once the Games are over.