The Olympics Games are easily one of the most popular events in the world. In a recent global survey, 9 out of 10 respondents could identify its trademark rings.
One place the Olympics are not popular, at least this year, is in Russia (which was banned from participation after its invasion of Ukraine in 2022). FilterLabs has been tracking Russian media narratives about the games, and let’s just say they don’t have much nice to say.
Sentiment in mainstream Russian news articles about the Olympics fell even before the Games’ opening ceremony on July 26:
When we took a look at the artifacts underlying the discourse, using Talisman, we found that much of the negative sentiment from July 14–23 was in discussion surrounding Russian athletes who were not allowed to participate in the Olympics, and the pollution in Paris. There were also posts about a Russian sports official blaming the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for the death of a Russian coach, who died recently in a traffic accident in Russia.
Sentiment dipped even further in the days immediately before the opening ceremony. The Russian head of the International Boxing Association, Umar Kremlev, announced that he was launching an investigation into Thomas Bach, president of the IOC. Other news outlets covered civil unrest and crime in France, especially when it could be tied to African migrants. There was general outrage over two Russian citizens who were detained for allegedly planning to disrupt the games. And there were several stories on athletes complaining about the food (it was bad, and there wasn’t enough of it either).
The opening ceremony sparked extra outrage. Its satire of Di Vinci’s The Last Supper was “a slap in the face to the athletes.” Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitri Peskov called it “disgusting.”
Sentiment around the Olympics was negative on Russian social media as well:
Many of the criticisms in the Russian mainstream press reappeared on social media platforms, message apps, and comment boards. There were plenty of Facebook comments about theft and other petty crimes committed by migrants. Other commentators repeated complaints about the quality of accommodations, transit strikes, and the allegedly poor quality of the food. There was even more vitriol about the opening ceremony: “These Games like Eurovision have degenerated into a get-together of [homophobic slur] and pedophiles.”
Russian political figures also went online to air their grievances. On Telegram the foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova listed her top 11 reasons why the Paris Olympics were a failure. Her list included poor transit, rampant homelessness, and “the rats flooding the streets.” She also objected to the Olympic torch being carried by, “rapper–drug addict Snoop Dogg."
The Russians who are competing in Paris, under the designation “individual neutral athletes” (AIN), were criticized too. They were in it for the money, or unpatriotic, or humiliating Russia by their willingness to compete without their flag.
There was some positivity as well. Many ordinary Russians were excited about the games and athletes from Russia—as well as competitors from post-Soviet countries such as Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. “Our athletes are ready to fight for medals and show the world the strength and spirit of Kyrgyzstan,” read one Facebook post. There seemed to be a feeling that any achievements by post-Soviet nations also reflected well on Russia.
In general, though, coverage of the Paris Olympics has been predictably negative. Indeed, none of the complaints are new. The Russian media’s grievances against the Olympics echo its more general grievances against Europe and the West as a whole. The West, it maintains, is corrupt, treating Russia unfairly, decadent if not godless, disorderly and crime-ridden, and really not that great anyway. Even their food is lousy.
A fable of Æsop tells of a fox who, after struggling in vain to reach a luscious bunch of grapes, declares scornfully that they are likely sour and not worth having. Russian dislike of the West is undeniably real—but its online discussion of the Olympics has a distinct sour-grapes flavor.
On Tuesday the Washington Post published an in-depth report on the Kremlin’s efforts to encourage women to have more children.
FilterLabs has been covering this issue for several weeks—in China as well as in Russia. See our June 14 newsletter to read our analysis of Putin and Xi’s pro-natal policies—and why they probably won’t work.