The Olympic Games are supposed to symbolize international cooperation as well as competition. Of course, any country hosting the Games wants to highlight its best features. But Sochi may be one of those times in Olympic history when a leader wants to use the Games for a much more specific political purpose — in this case, to prove that the system he presides over is preferable to that in many participating countries. To that end, he is insisting that Russia is the guardian of a culture that sets superior moral and political standards.