SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Each time an Olympics approaches, the ideal is articulated once more: The true spirit of the games, those who oversee them say, brings humanity together to promote amity and athletic excellence. It is most certainly not a place for the affairs of nations and vested interests to play out on a global stage.

“Olympics is not about politics. It’s about the sport, fair play and humanity,” Dmitry Chernyshenko, head of the Sochi organizing committee, said last week, echoing his predecessors. The new president of the International Olympic Committee, Germany’s Thomas Bach, was more nuanced, saying before the games began that his organization must be “politically neutral without being apolitical.”