Russian President Vladimir Putin might think he’s such hot stuff that no force on Earth can stand in his way, but I think that he’s made a crucial, strategic miscalculation.
Earlier this month, Special Olympics International announced that, because of Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the Special Olympics Winter Games that were scheduled to be held next January in Kazan, Russia, would be canceled.
If Putin thinks he’s unpopular now, he ain’t seen nothing yet.
“We can no longer ensure the effectiveness of the World Winter Games in Kazan or the safety of our athletes and community,” the organization’s statement said. “The horrific violence in Ukraine, the extensive sanctions implemented by the international community, and the uncertainty and fear being experienced around the world make it impossible to proceed.”
There is a certain sacred purity about the Special Olympics that people all over the world find comforting. As long as those plucky athletes are out there running dashes and throwing shot puts, all is well. So when someone tries to take that away, it whips up an awful lot of backlash. It happened to the squatter who occupied the White House before President Joe Biden.
In 2019, Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos unveiled a budget proposal that eliminated funding for the Special Olympics. This caused such an uproar that the squatter himself eventually announced that the funding would be restored. And it was.
As you might recall, the squatter never backed down from many of his stupid ideas. But when he saw the unstoppable force of goodness and virtue that is the Special Olympics steamrolling right toward him, he surrendered.
So if Putin thinks he’s unpopular now, he ain’t seen nothing yet. Soon his best option will be to try to find a face-saving way out of his mess. Maybe he thought all of the sanctions, boycotts, denunciations, alienation, and tersely worded U.N. Security Council resolutions in the world couldn’t deter him.
But when he made the Special Olympics come out against him, he really stepped on a hornets’ nest.
Who needs nukes?