On Tuesday, the Olympic Torch passed through Krasnodar, a city 190 miles inland of Sochi and the capital of the Kuban region of Russia. With a good showing from both faculty and students, little Kuban State University greeted the procession on snowy Stavropol street and watched as their young, athletic director was handed the torch.

Across the street I watched from my flat, which sits above a little grocery store. This view was just fine, considering it enabled me to avoid the unusual cold the southern region is experiencing this month.

For the past several months, the Olympics have been part of every aspect of daily life in the Kuban. Courses have been pushed back a month to allow student volunteers to participate in this once in a lifetime event. We are bombarded with Coca-Cola and McDonald’s ads of figure skaters and ski jumpers. The movie theater is showing a full-length feature film about Russian Olympians. Every newspaper in Krasnodar tells of new events to attend locally. Moscow papers hail the events as a great show of Russian success and sometimes excess.

Because of the Olympics, the last few weeks have turned the international spotlight on Russia, its major policy challenges and the differences between Russia and the rest of the world. Political and ethical questions about Russia have come to a head in response and in relation to the upcoming Olympics — Vladimir Putin’s baby.

Sochi is a city in the southwestern corner of Krasnodar Krai, which, in turn is the southwestern corner of the Russian Federation. It is very far from our stereotype of Russia in terms of geography, economics and culture.

Before I arrived to the area, I had heard the city and Russia’s Black Sea coast described as “Russia does Greece.” Although this description may not be entirely accurate, the resort and vacation potential is apparent. A string of towns and cities line the coast, and to the north, along the slopes and parallel to these coastal towns, lies Russia’s wine region. To the west, there are several Caucasus ski resorts. The city itself is unlike the rest of the country. On my first visit there I could hardly believe that I was still in Russia. Save for the Cyrillic signs and the occasional Soviet style high-rise, it was a different animal altogether.

For over a century, the area has served as Russia’s vacation center and a reward to both czarist and Soviet elite. But with the arrival of the Olympics, Sochi is being taken to an entirely new level. Everything is now either new or under construction. The scale of the project in Sochi is colossal and goes beyond just preparation for the Olympics and the 2018 World Cup. It is clear that the Putin-driven Sochi complex has international tourism in its sights, and the Olympic Games mark its grand opening.

Beyond the opening of Sochi as an international vacation hot spot, Russia stands to benefit from the Olympics in other ways. Namely, the Olympics in Sochi allow Russia to show off its natural beauty, modern technology (the new Olympic rail line, for example, is an impressive engineering feat), and wealth, as well as its desire to take a more active role in global affairs. Russia’s reasons for hosting the Olympics are genuine and well-intentioned.

One positive outcome that I have witnessed is the excitement coming from the volunteers. In the Russian language, there are two words for “volunteer” — one traditionally a Russian word and the other just the English word “volunteer” adopted and pronounced with an accent as “vol-un-tyor.” The accepted understanding of the difference between these two words is that the old word, “dobrovolets,” is a loaded word and carries with it the more negative and obligatory tone of the Soviet era, when people were required to do additional work without pay.

Culturally, the concept of volunteering in Russia is relatively new, so for so many young people to vol-un-tyor for the Olympics is really a positive advancement. It also signals that young people in Russia are very open to foreigners and interested in supporting the international event. The interest from potential student volunteers was so great that their numbers had to be limited and extra English courses were provided to aid in their preparation.

However, despite the fanfare, I am not convinced that the Olympics will actually benefit the country overall and this is mostly due to the onslaught of media attention resulting from the Olympic buildup. For one, in both Western media and popular thought, Russia typically does not fare well. Furthermore, all of Russia’s faults, specific to the Olympics and not, are exposed simultaneously.

Western media has, and rightly so, revealed the inadequacies of Russia’s preparation for the Olympics, the Russian government’s human-rights violations, and the poor development of a civil society. I applaud the work of groups like Human Rights Watch that maintain a presence in Russia, despite the hostile environment for foreign NGOs, and document the abuses of foreign workers and the limitation on the rights of freedom of speech. Western news agencies have also successfully presented the mess that is the construction in Sochi. Contractors are racing to finish construction on hotels for visitors to Sochi and a great deal of money has been lost to corruption in the process. These exposes are an important part of the transition and initiation into the developed, democratic world, and the way Putin and the government respond is duly noted.

Part of the portrayal of Russia and Russians is however undue, and often our media outlets, through lazy reporting, reinforce the stereotypes of Russians leftover from earlier years. At some point the media needs to move past the Cold War narrative of Russia as a “backwards” country. Most pre-Olympic reports are focused on major security threats at the Olympics or point to the overabundance of security forces present. The Russians are damned if they do, damned if they don’t. Or the reports simply repeat the complaints of unfinished buildings. Again, these are important to discuss, but rather than rehashing the same sensationalist stories, Western media could discuss other important topics concerning the region, the games and Russia.

The way the Russians in Krasnodar territory handle these criticisms of the games has caught my attention, too. Russians are notorious for their frank opinions and don’t hold back when it comes to the Olympics. Residents appear to have just as much beef with the mismanagement of the games as the rest of the world.

Some of locals’ major complaints mirror outsiders’ criticisms of the games: corruption is thick, spending is exorbitant, and security is a nightmare. Locals go farther though, expressing their disgust that this money is going into the pockets of oligarchs rather than specifically toward underfunded infrastructure and social programs.

But residents are also the most defensive of the games and feel their right to complain is more legitimate. For one, they have ownership of the games and all that come with it: The Olympics have a direct effect on their livelihoods for better or worse, and their children are staffing it. This defensiveness seems like a very natural response.

I guess my takeaway message from all of this is to suggest that when we watch and enjoy the Olympics this year, we take the negative reports on little things with a grain of salt. Before making judgments on a rich culture with a very troubled history, consider a different point of view and make the distinction between a people and its government. I am not suggesting we turn a blind eye to the injustices or inefficiencies that take place in Russia every day. But, to enter into a dialogue on such subjects, people must first have mutual respect for and understanding of one another. Let’s look at the Olympics as a gift to the world, a perhaps poorly wrapped or damaged gift, but a gift nonetheless.

 The city of Sochi is all but shut down now to anyone not volunteering or carrying a ticket. Although I have friends there, I will not attend due to prices and security. I’ll be returning to support Sochi’s economy as soon as everyone is gone, the water is again warm and the wine is flowing.