Watching the will be difficult for most people in Russia — and in the view of its media, it's not really worth the effort. Only 15 Russian citizens will be competing in the Games and, in principle, they won't be representing Russia. Because Russia and neighboring Belarus were banned from fielding national teams because of Russian and Belarusian athletes approved to compete will be Russians have been intense Olympics fans since the days when the Soviet Union's sports prowess was nicknamed “The Big Red Machine.
” But with so few of their countrymen competing, Russia's state TV channels aren't broadcasting any of the events. Russians may find feeds online, but could need a virtual private network to circumvent the country's block of some channels. The last time the Olympics weren't on TV in Russia — which has won the second-largest number of medals, counting the Soviet era — was in 1984, when the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
State news channel Rossiya 24 did broadcast a report from Paris on Friday night, showing dancing and plumes of colored smoke rising over the Seine River. News agencies Tass and RIA-Novosti gave it glancing attention, with terse stories saying the opening ceremony had begun, but little detail other than noting many spectators away. Newspapers aren't ignoring the Olympics entirely, but their main approach has been to accentuate the negative, writing at length about crime in Paris, the inconvenience of barricades placed throughout the city and repor.