Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games are not only the biggest and most expansive games to be held in Russia since the 1980 Moscow Summer Games, but also the most talked about in the media.

Sochi has been a convenient punchbag for the Western media for years now.

From consuming more than $50 billion on its preparations, raising concerns from environmentalists, to Russia's recent spate of homophobic laws and statements by politicians, the games have caught virtually everyone's attention, but not for sporting reasons.

Some respected media outlets went as far as covering the problem of stray dogs and poor quality hotels in the city, rather than highlighting the state of the art sports facilities that Sochi has put on display.

There have also been renewed security concerns emerging after the twin Volgograd bombings that hit Russia in December 2013.

Since July 2007, soon after Putin and his government won their bid for arranging the Winter Olympics in Russia, the media started giving excessive coverage to the event, focusing more on political issues and less on the sporting events themselves.

After such excessive media coverage, political bashing, and the doubts created over the event, I wonder whether it is fair to portray this major international sports event in such light?

While considering the mammoth figure of $50 billion in costs and accusing Moscow of corruption, many forgot that Sochi, as an Olympic site, had to be developed from scratch.

A total of 378 federal facilities and 46 regional ones were being constructed, where only 13 were sport-related and the rest related to infrastructure and accommodation.

While admittedly there is still the question of why Sochi, an underdeveloped sporting region where ice and snow had to be specially provided, was picked in the first place, comparing London, or even Beijing to Sochi in terms of incurred costs seems unfair as both the international cities had well developed infrastructure at their disposal.

The negative publicity of Sochi wasn't confined to costs alone. One of the other major burning issues was security concern and arrangements in wake of the deadly Volgograd bombings that hit the Russian city in December.

Dokka Umarov, Russia's Osama bin Laden, from the Caucasus region, had already threatened of such terrorist attacks.

The Volgograd attacks further brought Sochi into the spotlight with the Western media starting to call Russia an unsafe destination for global athletes. What again went unnoticed here was the fact that even amid the same security concerns, Russia successfully arranged the University Games in Kazan in July 2013 without any blips or security lapses.

Not only this, but the successful arrangement of the G8 and G20 summits in Russia, along with employment of more than 40,000 security personnel in Sochi should brush off such concerns.

Although it is indeed difficult, or even impossible, to defend Russia's recent homophobic laws, is it fair to single out the country at this time, create a negative sentiment, and thus jeopardize a sports event that aims to bring the whole world together?

Also, in terms of security, no country, facing the current situation of global war against terrorism could claim to be completely safe.

After all, even the Boston Marathon on April 15, 2013 witnessed a bombing incident but that didn't put any security concerns over future sporting events in the US, then why Sochi?

Sport provides refuge and solace to distressed world viewers who are fed up of chaos, violence and insecurity. The media, for once, should make its primary role reporting, and not analyzing, when it comes to broadcasting major sporting events. 

In the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin himself, "I would very much like sports not to be marred by politics," and rightly so!

After all, a mega sporting event has much more to offer than stray dogs and cost overdrafts.

The author is a program consultant and editor at the Center for Research and Security Studies, Islamabad. farooq@crss.pk