Rosneft became the national sponsor of the Sochi 2014 Olympics in the "oil" category, paying more than $160 million. *In January, a consortium of Rostelecom and MegaFon won the "telecommunications" category, committing to pay $130 million over eight years for sponsorship status and provide another $130 million worth of services. This is the largest sponsorship contribution in the history of the Olympic movement. Rosneft’s contract also promises to be record-breaking: until now, the Olympic champion among oil companies was BP, which paid £50 million for top-tier partner status at London 2012. * In the "banking" category, it will be Sberbank or VTB. In the "transport" category, it will be Russian Railways. I wouldn’t be surprised if they also force Rusnano to become a sponsor. And the Housing and Utilities Reform Fund. What the hell is the point of this whole dog-and-pony show? The Olympics are needed, nobody’s arguing with that. They could have just increased direct budget funding. But no, damn it, they’re going to lean on state-owned companies so they can pretend government funding is staying within the planned limits. Who exactly are we trying to fool?