WASHINGTON — The majestic view at sunset from the terrace of President Vladimir V. Putin’s dacha overlooking the Black Sea told you right away why he fought so hard to bring the 2014 Winter Olympics to this resort. Sochi is one of Mr. Putin’s favorite places.

On a visit to his presidential mansion in 2007, shortly after Russia had won the 2014 Games, a group of us listened intently as he looked forward to the Games as vital proof that Russia was back and that he had restored his country to its rightful role in the world. Sochi, he said, would give back to Russia its lost glory. This month, he added that the Games will be a “moral moment” for Russia.

The Olympic Games are supposed to symbolize international cooperation as well as competition. Of course, any country hosting the Games wants to highlight its best features. But Sochi may be one of those times in Olympic history when a leader wants to use the Games for a much more specific political purpose — in this case, to prove that the system he presides over is preferable to that in many participating countries. To that end, he is insisting that Russia is the guardian of a culture that sets superior moral and political standards.

Sochi may well represent a milestone for Russia, but perhaps not the one Mr. Putin has envisaged. For all its beauty and history, Sochi and the circumstances around the Olympics have dampened, rather than heightened, the luster evoked by the Russian leader, and not just because Sochi’s subtropical climate will be a challenge for Winter Olympics. More important is its proximity to the volatile North Caucasus, where Islamic militants clash daily with Russian forces; that backdrop has forced extraordinary security measures, heightened after two bombings in Volgograd that killed 34 people in December, and recent reports that female suicide bombers may have entered the Olympic Games enclave. The cost of building the untested facilities has been reported to be an unprecedented $51 billion. And Russian legislation banning homosexual “propaganda” has prompted calls for protests and boycotts.