There is one place in Russia where democracy is alive and well, and that place is Sochi, the Black Sea resort-town of yore that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

As the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in a ski suit stands on a mountaintop, he stares thoughtfully into the distance. He is surrounded by beaming compatriots and the natural beauty of Krasnaya Polyana – the view of the Caucasus mountain tops swelling from the Black Sea resort of Sochi.