Putin's $51 billion gamble

Vladmir Putin is gambling $49 billion of Russian taxpayers' money (plus $2 billion more from private investors) on impressing the world and raising Russia's standing.   If everything works and there are no terrorist attacks or excessive anti-gay incidents, it may just be worth it.  The gain would not only be improved world opinion;  it would also lift the spirits of the Russian people.  

But there are some very big IF's here:   lack of readiness, construction failures, inadequate hotels, terrorism fears, and denial of the anti-gay ugliness -- for example, the mayor of Sochi saying "there are no gay people in Sochi."  

I hear that it will also be crucial whether the Russian men's hockey team wins the gold.   Some say: if they do win, nothing else will matter;   and if they don't, nothing else will matter.

Tonight we see the Opening Ceremonies (which of course happened 9 hours ago, but NBC saved the broadcast for prime time in the U.S.)

We've already seen some wonderful performances Thursday in qualifying rounds of snowboarding and team figure skating.  So -- let's hope all does go well.

Ralph

PS:  The NBC broadcast of the Opening Ceremony in Sochi has just ended.   If everything else goes as well (only one small glitch, as far as I could tell), Putin might win his gamble.  The technology and coordination were awesome -- with seamless images from 60 projectors on either side of the stadium, projecting images sometimes on the floor, sometimes on the vaulted ceiling, of the vast stadium to portray 1000 years of Russian history.   The coordination of hundreds of live people on the floor with images transforming the floor into a fantasy world was impressive.

As the NBC commentators said, this was all about Russian pride and wanting to show the world that Russia has entered the modern world of technology to match its vaunted history in the arts and literature, which were also in display with performances by one of their premier ballerinas and by world-renowned opera singer Anna Netrebko.

Another nice touch:   at least for the tv broadcast, the music that was playing as the torch was brought in to light the cauldron was Stravinsky's "Fire Bird Suite."  It was perfectly coordinated so that the musical finale was reached just as the cauldron burst into flames.

Ralph