president who is not attending the games, sending a delegation of gay athletes to attend in his place. but the anti-gay laws are just part of the collapse of modern gay russia. as jeff charlotte writes in "gq" books are banned, immigrants hunted, journalists killed, blasphemy is now illegal. civil society isn't just coming undone, it's imploding. this is vladimir putin's moment. he fought hard to be on the world stage. the problem with being on the world stage is that now everyone is watching. joining me now from russia, julia ioffe, senior editor at the "new republic" where she's covering this story. my first question, julia, how are the olympics being received in russia, themselves? i mean, are people excited about it? is it a big victory for putin? is there an upwelling of national pride? all right. it appears that our feed is not working there with julia ioffe.