The Volgograd bombs are a warning over Olympic excess | Simon Jenkins

The more elaborate the staging of international sporting events, the more they are liable to attract protest and terrorism

The bomb blasts in the southern Russian city of Volgograd remind us that modern Olympiads are nationalist stunts first, and sports events second. Each one is more expensive and more politicised than the last, therefore becoming a magnet for enemies of the relevant state.

Vladimir Putin's February winter games in Sochi have already matched Beijing 2008 in the enormity of the...