I agree with you about the politics and have several friends that refuse to watch. I guess I just think that so many of the countries have awful leaders - allowing human rights atrocities. The Russian people themselves have always struck me as sensitive & poetic. But I am horrified by their treatment of gays & stray animals that they shot for the Olympics.
However, if you can go on internet & see the 31 year old Russian male figure skater - I forget his name, blonde, sort of Sean Penn-ish - he is elegance personified.
I think he is just yummy. It was heartbreaking to see him have to bow out last night because of all the pain he is in - a disc implanted in his back. He reminds me of the poem:
The night has a thousand eyes, the day but one.
But the light of the whole world dies, with the setting sun.