Putin's scorecard #2

Bob Costas is the overall host of NBC's broadcast of the Sachi Olympics.  Until yesterday, he had mostly avoided commenting on any political questions or criticisms of Russia.

Here's an excerpt from the Associated Press' David Bauder's report:

The NBC host noted how Ukrainian athletes at the games were showing their concern for their country's political unrest, and tied what was going on there to Vladimir Putin's Russia. Costas said the Sochi Olympics had gone off better than many people feared going in, "all of which is truly wonderful, but should not serve to obscure a harsher or more lasting truth. This is still a government which imprisons dissidents, is hostile to gay rights, sponsors and supports a vicious regime in Syria — and that's just a partial list." While the games may burnish Putin's reputation in some eyes, "no amount of Olympic glory can mask these realities," he said.

Harsh words -- but nothing more nor less than the stark truth.   It does bring to mind the 1936 Olympics in Berlin.   Consider these words from the online "History Learning Site" commentary about those 1936 games:

The 1936 Berlin Olympic Games had been handed to Berlin before the Nazis came to power but now it was the perfect opportunity for Hitler to demonstrate to the world, how efficient the Nazi Germany was,  It was also the perfect opportunity for the Nazis to prove to the world the reality of the Master Race. The Berlin Olympic Games gave the Nazis  an opportunity to show off to the world.

Of course, any nation hosting the Olympics will want to show off their nation, their people, and their athletes.  Nothing wrong with that.  It's what goes on behind the public image and what they may be trying to hide.

Putin is not Hitler.  Still, the ominous similarity is in the repressive forces and the discriminatory attitude toward human rights for all in the country outside the Olympic walls.

Ralph