Big hand to Putin Potemkin

_No innuendo intended

By Oh Young-jin

The opening gala show of the Sochi Winter Olympic Games was better than any of its predecessors including summer versions I have ever seen.

As a matter of fact, I don’t remember any of pre-Sochi galas because I dozed off during some broadcasts and switched off others for a variety of reasons ― time difference, a lack of discipline, organization and coherence.

Speed skaters from the Netherlands, silver winner Jan Blokhuijsen, gold winner Sven Kramer and bronze winner Jorrit Bergsma, from left, stand together during the medal-awarding ceremony for the men’s 5,000-meter event at the Adler Arena Skating Center on Saturday. / AP-Yonhap

Simply put, they didn’t reach my expectations for Olympic proportions.

A bit past 2 a.m. Saturday morning, I woke up in a mild case of curiosity-driven insomnia and turned the television on, feeling secure in the thought that the Sochi show would be so uninteresting that I would fall back to sleep shortly.

I was wrong. It proved to be a true spectacle. One caveat is that I started to watch it only after one glitch―one of five giant Olympic Rings in the air at the Fisht Stadium didn’t open.

Korea’s Seo Jung-hwa jumps during the women’s moguls qualifying at the Rosa Khutor Extreme in Krasnaya Polyana on Saturday. / AP-Yonhap

One moment, it was a group of old Czarist-era soldiers marching proudly through the streets of St. Petersburg, which was projected on the ground of the stadium. The map resembled, if it was possible, a 19th century version of a scene from Google Earth.

Then, columns the size of the Luxor Obelisk Napoleon in the Place de la Concorde in Paris rose from the floor and turned the scene into one big ballroom.

Hammer and Sickle together―the same as that found in the flag of the defunct Soviet Union, predecessor to Russia, dominated the air, while symbolic replicas of machines were shown on the ground.

The silhouette of Peter the Great on a rearing horse also appeared.

Multi-colored balloons of castles resembling St. Basil’s Cathedral rose into the air, pictures of which were used by many newspapers for the Sochi opening.

Korea’s flag bearer, speed-skater Lee Kyou-hyuk, leads his national delegation during the opening ceremony. / AFP-Yonhap

Yulia Lipnitskaya of Russia competes in the women’s team short program figure skating competition at the Iceberg Skating Palace. / AP-Yonhap

Mao Asada of Japan falls as she competes in the women’s team short program figure skating competition. / AP-Yonhap

Ashley Wagner of the U.S. waves to spectators and embraces a teammate after competing in the women’s team short program figure skating competition, before reacting to her score, at the Iceberg Skating Palace on Saturday. / AP-Yonhap

To say the least, it was breath-taking enough to say that I am proud of the Russian organizers for giving me an hour of really enjoyable scenes.

For that hour, I forgot the Pussy Riot, Khardorkovosky, gay hatred, partition-less toilets, terrorism, Olympic budget overruns and Putin the dictator.

If the Olympic spirit is about a truce, let’s have it for the next two weeks.

We can always go back to those issues.

They will not disappear like the ghosts of Tchaikovsky or Tolstoy in the opening show or those of Stalin and others who were skipped.