By Ruma Dubey

The Winter Olympics at Sochi, Russia begins today. The razzle and dazzle could actually make one forget the cold of the winter, the troubled economy of Russia, the gross human rights violation, the growing dictatorship of Putin and the rising disenchantment of the people. In the midst of all this, there is also high intensity drama – growing threats from Islamist militants in the Caucasus region. Ukraine is like  a tinder box right now and Sochi probably has the highest security ever seen.

There was a time when erstwhile USSR was the most powerful country in the world and then the disintegration into factions and Russia, which was but a mere shadow of the era gone-by. Today, like India and its past glory, this country too is ridden by corruption, rising inequalities, inefficiencies and blatant use of power to get things done, even if it meant riding over the citizens. For Russia, holding of this Olympics at Sochi is probably the biggest thing that ever happened in the country after the Soviet history. The Olympics is being used by Putin to show the world that ‘it has arrived’ and is raring to go. The spend on the Games defies the current economic bubble it lives in.

The cost of the games for showing the world that ‘it has arrived’ –$50 billion, making it the most expensive in the history of mankind. The cost has burgeoned four times over from the estimate made in 2007 at $12 billion. China had spent $40 billion for its summer Olympics in 2008 and Canada, the earlier host of Winter Olympics had spent around $8 billion.

Why did the cost swell so much? Two explanations – firstly Russia has not undertaken anything so big since the days of USSR, so many blame it on gross miscalculations and the desire to build huge, mammoth structures. But the second one makes more sense – the high level of corruption has inflated the costs. Remember our very own CWG, where costs were inflated for everything, right from toilet paper to the buildings made? It’s the same thing, only that corruption is more acute and rampant in Russia, which explains the growing inequalities.

Ironically, India Olympic Association (IOA) remains suspended from the Olympic movement until fresh elections on 9^th Feb. IOC froze India's membership in December 2012 and suspended it from the Games movement due to corruption. If IOC could be banned for corruption, one cannot help but wonder how Russia got through, not just as a participant but as a host!

The Russian Olympics reeks of corruption as the games, which is actually a Winter Olympics, necessarily needs to be held in very cold regions, where snow is heavy. But officials in Russia chose Sochi which is the ‘Summer Capital’ of the region where people in Russia go to get away from bitter cold! It has a sub tropical weather and the Black Sea, where the Games are being held, has palm-fringed sea front resorts and absolutely no chance of having a ‘white’ landscape. So the news is that Sochi will not have snow for the Winter games but Russia is prepared - they have fixed over 400 snow making machines, along with 27 mobile ones, fed by two huge water reservoirs. These will produce artificial snow for the slopes by blasting a mixture of water and compressed air above the slopes. If the water does not freeze? Not to fret – they will add chemical agents to the water. They also have 710,000 cubic metres of snow stored up from previous winter seasons, under heavy insulating blankets.

So why on earth are they holding an alpine Winter sports event in a place which is not even cold?  It is more symbolic; it if from these foothills of the North Caucasus mountains that Putin rose to power, squashing the Chechen rebels. It is also the home of Putin and it’s like he wanting to show the power he has on home turf.  Also political reasons - the end of the games, on 23^rd Feb is the day in 1943 when Joseph Stalin deported the Chechen population to the Far East and Siberia. But unfortunately, Putin has fired up embers all over the Caucasus region, with rebels and terrorists, all wanting a piece of their own land. Yes, Sochi is located on the edge of a war zone.

There are major leaders world over who are boycotting the games at Sochi for gross human rights violation in Russia. Criminalization of gays in Russia means even a whiff of their existence, the officials bludgeon them to death or miamed for life.Thus those who want to mark their protest against these anti-gay laws will not go – Barrack Obama, David Cameron, Angela Merkel and officials from Germany and France. Not surprisingly, China’s Xi Jinping, Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe, and Turkey's prime minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄŸan as well as the UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, Italian Prime Minister and the Dutch King will go.

Sports is about having fun, unifies people, is about competing and having a good time but Russian Olympics is less about sports and more about politics. All eyes will be riveted on Sochi, for action not on the sports arena but more off it.