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In a particularly poorly considered bit of reassurance, Russian deputy prime minister Dmitry Kozak rebutted reporters' depictions of incomplete or crumbling hotel rooms near the Olympic Games site in Sochi by saying that the problems were being exaggerated. How'd he know? Video surveillance of a shower. Oh.

The Wall Street Journal reported on the press conference on Thursday morning, in which Kozak, who's responsible for the preparations for the Games, insisted that everything was going smoothly. He told reporters that, of the 100,000 guests that had been accommodated, they'd only received 103 complaints. That the Games were happening at all was a victory, he insisted, and "As we say in Russia, victors don't get blamed."

All of which is fine, if worthy of some skepticism. Then he told explained his belief that Westerners wanted to make Russia look bad and were sharing manufactured images with precisely that aim. How'd he know?

"We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day," he said. An aide then pulled a reporter away before Mr. Kozak could be questioned further on surveillance in hotel rooms. "We're doing a tour of the media center," the aide said.

For what it's worth, none of the images of Sochi's problems that have gone viral have depicted water damage. But the aide's response in rapidly extracting Kozak was a good one — what's that about video surveillance in the showers?