I'm wondering if ten years from now folks will look back at the Sochi Olympics and say it marked the beginning of the end for Putinism in Russia. Will this be the event that drives home to the Russian people that Kremlin corruption has gotten so out of control that the government is incapable of pulling off even the most critical projects, no matter how much money it throws at it?

http://www.businessinsider.com/sochi-olympics-a-monstrous-scam-2013-5

Is Russia borrowing the money from China?

Best regards,

RA1

Maybe, but we were saying all the same things about China last go around. And will almost certainly be saying similar things about Brazil soon...

More details of the local delights...

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1947828-wealth-of-issues-face-2014-sochi-winter-olympic-athletes-fans-and-journalists?utm_source=cnn.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=editorial&hpt=hp_t2

Russia is headed for a very difficult future. To stay afloat, oil has to be at least $103 per gallon. Putin runs a kleptocracy.

Of course the more that Putin is boxed in, the more dangerous he becomes. How violent will the revolution finally be? And what will come after?

Ah, to be able to hear Nixon diagnose the current scene and prognosticate.

There will be problems in Ukraine first. They also have a powerful neighbor that covets the sparsely-inhabited SIberian vastnesses. Russia was probably closest to a civilized state following the 1905 Revolution when the chastened tsar installed Stolypin as Prime Minister. Sadly, Stolypin was assassinated and Russia has never gotten close to a civil society since. They do have an impressive armed forces, though, with great parade uniforms.

Now it's toothpaste airplane bombs.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/winter-olympics/10620817/Sochi-2014-US-issues-warning-over-toothpaste-bomb-plots.html

After exploding underwear, how much more intimate can you get? Actually, terrorists or any other "activist" group will have to get up a lot earlier in order to do something new. Back in the 1970's US Customs at JFK squeezed my toothpaste, squirted my shaving cream and other wise thoroughly looked into my luggage to include unpacking my life raft. Because I made so many one way trips overseas I, for a time, was listed as a suspected smuggler (presumably of drugs but that was never clarified).

To be repetitious, most anti-terrorist activity is a waste of time and money. A determined individual or group can get past any such. In the meantime, US citizens continue to have their rights taken away and abused.

Best regards,

RA1

So it was in the news that there are cameras in the showers at Sochi... What are those cameras for? Will Snowden get so upset that he will decide to come back to the US??? I hope Putin is not associated with these cameras...