I want to see the gold medal event in tear gas and rubber bullet employment.  Don’t worry folks, Uncle Vladimir will ensure that you and your Russian friends can freely protest totalitarian bigotry; just in a special spot chosen by goons, watched by goons.  What could go wrong?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-25604220

Add this to last week’s bombings in Volgograd and it’s shaping up as quite the joyful event.  But then, what did anybody expect to happen? 

Sochi beat out Salzburg and Pyeongchang to host (Pyeongchang gets the 2018 games).  Now granted Pyeongchang is technically within rocket artillery range of North Korea, but does anybody think we’d have this kind of spectacle in those cities? 

However Austria and South Korea don’t have what Russia has, the willingness to provide sacks full of cash to IOC officials.  So as this plays out just remember:  If you’re a voting IOC official driving your shiny new BMW in say, Salzburg, and you hear about protestors getting gassed, you’ll still know you made the right decision.