This afternoon, as I streamed the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics from the BBC’s website thanks to a handy bit of VPN-manipulating software, I began to devise a drinking game for those in the States patient enough to wait for it to air at prime time/happy hour on NBC (and for those doing so, spoilers follow!). The game goes like this: Take a sip every time a letter of the Cyrillic alphabet appears. Take three sips any time the word “troika” is mentioned. Take a shot every time a correspondent points out the presence of palm trees in Sochi — a double if he or she wisely submits that said trees should make competing athletes from island climes feel more at home. And take three shots of your stiffest vodka whenever a commentator watching the razzle-dazzle cavalcade of Russian history parading across the stage at Sochi’s Fisht Olympic Stadium awkwardly draws attention to the tragedy that underscores any moment of that history. Russia attempted to outshine previous years’ ceremonies by updating the traditional Parade …