The Olympics are nothing if not a source of nationalistic
pride, platform for individual accomplishment and home to dramatic
achievements. They are also a microcosm of global politics and political
aspirations, as well as a reflection of a nation’s status within the
international community. The catastrophic run up to the Olympics in Rio have
likely altered the type of nation that will be asked to host the Games in the
future, but aside from that, no actual change will stem from these particular
Games, as the Olympics will continue to remain a proxy for planetary ideology,
rather than an agent for reform. They are a reflection of the world, not an
influence upon it.
There is no country more isolated on the world stage right
now than Russia. Even more reclusive China is starting to enter the global
market, going so far as to deal with the ideologically disparate West, as well
as more dependent local nations like North Korea and Mongolia. Russia,
meanwhile, is at war with the Ukraine and within its own borders in Chechnya
and Dagestan, and at odds with nearly every other country in the world over
their appropriation of foreign lands and strong-arming dependent nearby
nations. Other nations deal with Russia, but not willingly, and only if there
are no other options.
It’s easy, then to figure why Russia might try so hard to
show us how strong they are athletically. They want to remain a superpower, and
they want the world to continue to respect them. Short of open warfare, the
Olympics are the best measurement of competitive strength between nations.
It’s also not particularly surprising that Russia is lashing
out at its Western nemeses now that wide ranging doping among its Olympic
athletes has come to light. Whether or not there was culpability with the
Russian government was immaterial. The IOC’s decision to ban many Russian
athletes was a conspiracy by the Americans, in the eyes of the Russian state
run media.
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| Evgeny Tishchenko wins gold |
When the Games actually began, many more athletes were kept
in suspense as to whether or not they would be allowed to compete. Those that
did were lustily booed. In the heavyweight boxing gold medal match for example,
Silver Medalist Vassiliy Levit of Kazakhstan had to admonish the crowd, as it
was so hostile to Evgeny Tishchenko, the man who had just defeated him to win
Russia a gold medal. This must have been a wakeup call to the Russians that
were able to sneak out from under the purview of the ever watchful eye of
Vladimir Putin’s government. Certainly, they couldn’t have anticipated the
negative response from fans in Rio de Janeiro.
In 2014, when Russia was hosting the Winter Games at Sochi,
their athletes were extremely successful. Of course, we now know that their athletes
were artificially enhanced. While they were putting on a strong face for the
athletic community, they were also occupying the Crimean Peninsula and waging
war in the eastern Ukraine. The projection of strength on the athletic stage
was a small scale manifestation of their geopolitical activity.
Following the suspension of their athletes and the pariah
status of those that made it, the Russian government’s official response seemed
to be petulance. There is the blaming of the West by the Russian government,
and the lambasting of the IOC and WADA, the drug enforcement agency of
international sport, by those that support the country. Those that still made
it to the games continued to excel for their home country, though, with Russia
still finishing in the top five in the medal count.
Will the international community’s dismissal of all those
athletes, and the hostile crowd for those that competed humble Russia? Likely
not. Will the success that the country achieved, despite the odds against them
by the dismissal of so many top performers, embolden the country in the face of
a world that has thumbed its nose at them? That seems a bit more suitable for
Russia and Putin’s personality . /
The first sign that Russia is going to assert their strength
rather than take their lumps is coming internally. There are several reports of
the Russian government leaning on whistleblowers,
trying to threaten those that have spoken out against the doping program, and
there are even allegations of political assassinations of high ranking
Russians that have testified against the Russian Olympic federation.
That is an obviously draconian response to the exposing of a
sports scandal, further suggesting that this means more than simple athletic
competition to the Russian elite. With any impropriety scrubbed from the
Russian media, Putin and his government seem to have closed their grip on power
and the good favor of his people, broadcasting a message of victimhood
domestically in response to their failure to achieve their accustomed success
during the games. The world, in the eyes of Putin’s Russia, cannot tolerate
Russian strength, and is out to undermine the Russian people.
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| Vladimir Putin |
Now Russia seeks to insert themselves into the international
community once again. It appears as the Russian strategy has been to ingratiate
themselves with nations that are also on the outs with the rest of the
international community. They’ve sided with the regime in Syria and Turkey, who
are both recently in the process of putting down coups and rebellion, but are
generally ideologically different from each other in nearly every way, save for
their functioning autocratic governments.
Another example of Russia’s insisting itself upon
international hot spots occurred in the Arabian Peninsula. Since the games
ended, Yemen, a long time foil to Western activity around the Red Sea, offered
Russia use of its airports in an effort to fight terrorism. Of course, Yemeni
terrorists have never really been much of a threat to Russia, but the southern
end of the Arabian Peninsula is a strategically important part of the world
that Russia will benefit from having a presence in, while Yemen can thumb its nose at Saudi Arabia and her allies.
Russia gets to put forth a strong face and stand up to the
IOC because they are such a strident contributor of resources and athletes,
hosting the games twice and regularly sitting atop the medal count. Likewise in
the real world. They can throw their weight around in the international arena
because of their vast geography, and huge population. They have tremendous
access to natural resources, notably gas and oil, which they can leverage in
any negotiation with their neighbors in Europe.
They employed such a strategy to expand their coffers in
headier times, however, Russia’s economy has taken a hit thanks to sanctions
thrust upon them in the wake of the Sochi Games. Of course, it wasn’t the Games
that resulted in the sanctions, but their concurrent actions in the Ukraine,
and their annexation of the Crimean Peninsula. When Russia was freer to take
independent actions, they could be more overt with their intentions.
These current troubles have forced Russia into a more coy
international strategy. They are seeking other international outcasts like
Yemen or Syria for some sort of gallows friendship. They have also come through
the scandal with confidence and a sense of infallibility, given their internal
political fortification and their athletic success despite limited access to
the games. Russia has somehow come away from the scandal prouder than when it
was before the news broke.
What seemed like a firm stance against the Russians, doesn’t
seem to have had the desired impact. Usually, in the United States, we think
that punishments are corrective and will encourage a change in behavior, but
the outcry by the rest of the world only seems to have emboldened the Russians.
It affirmed their course of action, rather than deterring it.
Now we sit in October, with the Olympics long over, and our
focus on other sports and other news. We have all but forgotten about this
scandal in the West, but may revisit it in two years. You can believe that
Russia won’t forget, and will stew until Pyeongchang. Not just the athletes,
but the entire government.
