As President Bush and his wife were attending the opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games and American diplomats in Europe were asleep at the wheel, Russia decided to use the cover of the massive Olympics hooplah to attack Georgia in an attempt to reclaim the pro-Russian breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhasia.
During the Cold War the glory of bringing home gold medals from the Olympic Games was paramount for powerful nations. Russia was dominant for many years in track and field events and swimming winning many gold medals often leaving America, its nemesis, to pick up the silver. The machine that turned out Russia’s Olympic athletes was well oiled and treated lavishly. Its superiority at the Games showed how powerful a nation it had become.
Fast forward to the 21st century and much has now changed. After the collapse of the Berlin Wall Russia went through many years of economic upheaval and leadership arriving today under the firm grip of Vladimir Putin the ‘former’ President and now Prime Minister of the country. It has become an economic powerhouse once again and it is Mr Putin who is handling all of the media statements around this invasion.
Why now is Mr Putin appearing confident and bullish over these attacks? Perhaps it is no coincidence that he used the distraction of the Olympics to launch his attacks on Georgia. Maybe too he has been studying popular culture in both the East and the West? Young people today are less enamored by award shows. The dishing out of Oscars by actors and actresses to their counterparts and seeing Jay-Z receive a Grammy from his musical partner Rhianna has lost its lustre. Even American Idol is slipping – one producer has smelled the coffee and jumped ship.
For the participating nations the Olympics provides the most spectacular and the most televised awards-giving of all but when a stalwart newspaper, The Guardian, has to ask its readers “Will you be watching the Olympics?” and Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympics Committee warns that the Olympics need to be made more relevant to the younger generation as less young people are showing interest, then something’s up.
Like those young people Mr Putin could care less about the Olympics. He understands that America’s economic might is in decline and no amount of gold medals in Beijing will repair the image of a country on its heels simultaneously fighting two foreign wars and struggling with a recession at home. Russia is focusing on amassing the very products that the West is short of – oil and natural gas – and the pipelines that deliver those products to the shipping terminals run through or nearby the territories that his troops are now fighting to reclaim.
Mr Putin will gladly swap gold medals for energy dominance any day – China, India and Europe want what he has – the biggest prize of all and Russia wants to take home the gold.
