Sochi Problems Embarrasses America more than Russia

On the day of the opening of the Olympics at Sochi, there have also been riots around Russia because of the Russian government's anti-gay laws. When gay activists waved rainbow flags, police arrested and detained them.

For the Olympic Games, Western journalists went to Sochi a few days ago. However, much as riots are going around in Russia, these journalists were apparently caught up in social media complaining about their plumbing situations, dirt in their water and debris in their hotel rooms.

The Twitter account @SochiProblems has been spreading on the Twitter zone to represent the idea that Sochi is an embarrassment to Russia.

Complaints with photos or microblogs from Westerners travelling to Sochi can express themselves with this account. As of Saturday night, @SochiProblems already had over 320,000 followers.

With this development however, Russians are not so pleased. New Republic Senior Editor Julia Ioffe reported that Russians are "puzzled by why the Americans and the British are so very happy that the details are a little screwy, the way they generally are in Russia." They are calling it "zloradstvo," or "malicious glee."

This seems however to be borne out of cultural misunderstandings and sheltered ignorance of the Westerners.

An example is from Chicago Tribune reporter Stacy St. Clair tweeting

Most Russians of course don't drink water from the tap and those who do boil it because they couldn't afford bottled water. Only around half of the Russian population had actual access to potable water. This is according to Jean Lemierre, the president of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

Vladimir Putin even admitted last May that he doesn't have access to clean water. He said, "Imagine, even me - rusty water also comes from my pipes. Funny, huh? But it's a fact. I'm ashamed to say it."

Another complaint from a journalist is that the hotel rooms didn't have coat racks. A retweet by @SochiProblems of CBC Radio-Canada commentator Mark Connolly on his apartment foyer reads "I'm thinking a lot of rooms are missing coat racks, or else you're supposed to pick one up as you go by."

If American journalists continue to focus on these shallow cultural differences, it seems that they will be less of an authority who is able to critique issues in Russia.