Under the cover of the Olympics

What does it mean when the wolf cries wolf? Most obviously, propagandists in Moscow and Kiev take us for fools — which by many indications is quite justified.

As the Winter Olympics get smiling coverage despite it all, this article on the Ukraine from the historian Timothy Snyder puts Putin's grisly regime and imperialist ambitions into proper perspective. It is well worth reading in full.

He writes about the conflict in the Ukraine in the context of Putin's attempt to create an authoritarian, anti-democratic and fascistic Eurasian Union to confront the European Union. The anti-gay laws have to be seen in this light too as "the exploitation of sexual politics is now to be an open weapon in the struggle against the “decadence” of the European Union."

So what are the democracies doing about this? Allowing Putin to help wreck Syria and giving Russia the World Cup. This is not encouraging.