Russia: Spectacular Ceremony Kicks Off Sochi Games, Marking Momentous Day for Russia - by Ivan Nechepurenko, Yekaterina Kravtsova and Ezekiel Pfeifer

President Vladimir Putin declared the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics officially open on Friday night after a grandiose 2 1/2-hour show that told the history of modern Russia with dazzling lights, giant installations and hundreds of dancers, in an event that marked the end of more than six years of fevered preparations by the Russian government.

In the midst of an economic downturn and largely negative international media attention on Russia, the Olympics were envisioned by the Kremlin as a demonstration to the world of the country’s transformation into an advanced nation.

The opening ceremony, viewed by tens of thousands of spectators in Fisht Olympic Stadium and millions more around the world, showed that transformation in song and dance numbers that featured enormous inflatable samovars, a ballet scene from Leo Tolstoy’s iconic “War and Peace,” machines illustrating the start of the Soviet era, and cosmonauts and hipster dancers from the hopeful period after the death of Josef Stalin. Classical music by famed Russian composers from Tchaikovsky to Stravinsky provided the soundtrack.

Viewers were on the alert for political symbolism in the proceedings. Social media users noted the fact that World War II, a watershed moment in Russian history, was not depicted in detail, and some saw significance in the playing of a mash-up song by faux-lesbian duo t.A.T.u. and the band Queen, whose lead singer was gay, when the Russian Olympians filed into the stadium, arguing that it could be a pro-gay gesture amid international criticism of Russia’s anti-gay propaganda law.

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