SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) - Russia leapt to the top of the medals table on Saturday with two more golds as the Sochi Olympics entered the final stretch, and the host nation said its first Winter Games had helped "break the ice" of scepticism towards it.
Organisers were confident they had achieved what they, and President Vladimir Putin, had set out to do - project Russia as a modern, tolerant country that had thrown off the shackles of its Soviet past.
