Opening Ceremony Malfunction

While watching the opening ceremony for Sochi Winter Olympic 2014 with my family, we were astonished by the flawlessness of the process until we saw a major malfunction, which was during the climax of the ceremony. As we can see in the two pictures, the picture on the top shows the malfunction. The top right snowflake is seen not opening like the other ones; the six snowflakes were supposed to get bigger and form the Olympic symbol of the five rings. Countries, including America, aired the opening ceremony with the malfunction except for the country that the opening ceremony actually took place in, Russia. When airing the opening ceremony in Russia, the Russian state television swapped the footage with a one from a rehearsal, which is the second photo right before the malfunction happened,

As Mr.Bolos had mentioned in class before, the Russian state television is under the heavy influence of the Russian government. It is known that president Vladimir Putin had repeatedly emphasized the importance of making Russian flawless to the world during the Olympics. It goes without saying that the swapping of the footages was under the directions of the government trying to make Russia look flawless to the world, at least in the country. The philosophy of Russia trying to show itself flawless during the Olympic, where billions of people's attention is at, is completely understandable. But the government's decision of covering up the footage told the world something that is far away from flawless.

How do you think the people in Russia felt when they learned about this malfunction being covered up? Do you think this changed how Russia is seen in the world?