This was to be the week Vladimir Putin reintroduced Russia to the world: a confident, economically booming power whose influence in Eastern Europe and the Middle East is coming back; whose ability to block and counter the United States is reestablished; and which offers, through Putin, a new model of conservatism for those disenchanted with the liberal West. Yet that is not how it is turning out. Beginning Friday, the Sochi Olympics are more likely to become a forum for the demonstration of how and why Putin’s rule of Russia has failed — and how his power is ebbing both abroad and at home.
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