Russian Winter Games Kick Off With A Glitch, Fairytale Show

It's been billed as Russia's chance to re-introduce itself to the post-Cold War world.

Russia's Winter Games got off to a shaky start on Friday when one of the five Olympic rings failed, but ballet dancers, stirring music and huge mechanical props tracing the host nation's history propelled the opening ceremony forward.

Only four of the five giant Olympic rings unfurled from snowflake-shaped structures suspended from the roof of the 40,000-capacity Fisht Stadium in Sochi, meaning the famous symbol could not be illuminated with fireworks as planned.

The showboat start to a Games President Vladimir Putin hopes will burnish Russia's image on the world stage went on without further ado, with cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev, who has spent more days in space than anyone, hoisting the Russian flag.

Putin official declared the February 7-23 Games open to a burst of fireworks that lit up the clear night sky outside the gleaming new stadium located on the shores of the Black Sea.

Before the symbol hiccup, a young girl in white dress soared into the air, lifted by a harness, and sang as islands representing different parts of Russia with folktale scenes drifted dreamlike across the stadium.

Athletes emerged from beneath the stage up a ramp for the traditional parade as a giant satellite image of each nation taken from space was projected onto the floor.

The Russians, outfitted in white fur-trimmed hats and coats, drew wild cheers from a crowd lit up by boxes on seats in the stands creating a dazzling visual backdrop.

The crowd favorite of the evening was clearly a graceful waltz led by stars of Russian ballet as massive columns pushed up out of the floor to set a scene echoing Leo Tolstoy's masterpiece War and Peace.

The twirling dancers were chased out of the stadium by stark red lights, jarring music and a giant train embodying the upheaval of the 1917 Russian revolution and the importance of the avant-garde art movement at around that time.

Soviet socialist realist symbols - including a massive hammer and sickle - powered the audience forward through decades depicted as a time of industrial progress to the thaw of 1950s to modern day.

The state-of-the-art arena, one of several construction projects that have swelled the budget of the Winter Games to a record $50 billion, holds 40,000 people, and Putin was joined by more than 40 world leaders.

Millions more will watch on television and via the Internet as Russia hosts its first Winter Olympics, an event Putin has staked his reputation on.

(Note: Reuters reports were included in this story.)