The Sochi Olympics are supposed to give an enormous boost to Russia's global image and influence. After seeing how welcoming and modern Russia could be, who could hang on to stereotypes from the Cold War era or the mafia-blighted 1990s, or to more recent misconceptions of medieval, religion-driven tyranny?
If the lavatory incident is any indication, the games' organizers could end up flushing those ambitions down the toilet.
It all started Jan. 20 with a tweet by BBC journalist Steve Rosenberg. "Seeing double in the gentlemen's loo at the Olympic Biathlon Center," he wrote over a picture of two full, sit-down toilets installed side by side, with no partition between them. The picture was so absurd Rosenberg thought it merited a second tweet: "Just to make clear, this is not photoshopped. You can see my reflection in the flusher."