Mikheil Saakashvilli, Georgia’s pro-west president, has issued a plea for Western support for the conflict about “our common trans-Atlantic values of liberty and democracy.” He wrote in today’s Wall Street Journal that the future of his country is at stake. Meanwhile, our ineffective President, who was enjoying himself at the Beijing Games while Russian jets bombed Georgia’s airports and military bases, called the invasion “unacceptable.” Hatchet man Dick Cheney darkly warned that the Russian attacks won’t go “unanswered.”
Russian czar Vladimir Putin, a man eager to flex his country’s economic and military power, laughed both of them off because U.S. credibility on the world’s stage is shot in the aftermath of Iraq, a place where Georgia proudly sent 2,000 of its troops to show support for the U.S. Those soldiers are returning home to fight the Russians. They must be wondering what they were doing in Iraq in the first place and where is the payoff for their embattled country?
It’s hard to imagine the gutless IOC, which was snookered by promises of reform from the Chinese, pulling the Games from Sochi. Salzburg (Austria) was a runner-up. The Sochi '14 website informs visitors there are 2,005 days before the beginning of its Games. Much can happen in the boiling Black Sea region during that countdown.
There is a big question on the PR front. Who gets to carry the Olympic torch through the streets of Sochi? Will it be Weber Shandwick’s Harris Diamond or Jack Leslie?
Weber Shandwick guided the Sochi bid and has been named agency of record for the Games. It has its work cut out.