Boycotting the 2014 Sochi Olympics Is a Really Bad Idea

If you’re the Obama administration, there are a lot of reasons to hate on Russia right now. Vladimir Putin’s regime is actively arming Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, in his war against Western-backed rebels. The country continues to block international measures aimed at stopping Iran’s nuclear program. Last month, Putin signed a law that makes the public discussion of gay rights or relationships punishable by arrest or fines. And yesterday, despite the direct appeals of President Obama, the Kremlin granted asylum to the heretofore airport lounge-bound, former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

In response, the White House is considering canceling Obama’s scheduled summit with Putin in Moscow next month. Some voices, including South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham and actor and gay-rights activist Harvey Fierstein, are calling for a more dramatic rebuke: a U.S. boycott of next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. “I know athletes would be heartbroken,” Graham told NBC News last month. “I love the Olympics, but I hate what Russia is doing throughout the world.”