Note:
This is my 11th special Window on
Eurasia about the meaning and impact of the planned Olympiad on the nations in
the surrounding region. These WOEs,
which will appear each Friday over the coming year, will not aim at being
comprehensive but rather will consist of a series bullet points about such
developments. I would like to invite
anyone with special knowledge or information about this subject to send me references
to the materials involved. My email
address is paul.goble@gmail.com Allow
me to express my thanks to all those who already have. Paul Goble
Putin
Understates Cost of Sochi Olympiad by 50 Billion US Dollars ... President
Vladimir Putin tells the Russian people that their government spent only 3
billion US dollars on the Sochi Olympiad, some 50 billion less than Russian
officials have acknowledged heretofore (apsny.ge/2013/eco/1366935269.php).
… And Says Corruption Won’t Affect Games.
Putin says that reports about corruption and indeed all criticism of the games
will not affect the games themselves and can be safely igoed because such
“critical remarks” were “all expected” and involve “finance flows” rather than
the bulders themselves (en.ria.ru/sports/20130425/180847565.html).
French
Scholar Says Sochi Shows Russia Becoming an Asiatic Despotism. Domique Moisi,
a scholarat the Paris Institute for International Relations, says in an article
picked up by Russian outlets that the Soch games, although designed to
highlight “the new greatness” of Russia in fact show how far it has moved under
Vladimir Putin toward becoming an Asiatic despotism (zvezdapovolzhya.ru/obshestvo/vostochnyy-despotizm-23-04-2013.html).
Latest Sochi Official Heads to Prison. Oleg Sheveyko became only the latest Sochi official to be sent to prison for official malfeasance.He will serve 20 months. Earlier Elena Sokolinskaya was sentenced to nine years for violating environmental laws, and Igor Magdashyan ten months for accepting bribes. Another Sochi official, Aleksey Dvornitsky, is now facing trial for misappropriation of two million rubles (blogsochi.ru/content/olegu-sheveiko-dali-1-god-i-8-mesyatsev).
Sochi Resident Says City Disappointed by Olympic Construction. Aleksey Glushenko says that he and his fellow Sochi residents were hopeful that the Olympics would help their city but have been bitterly disappointed: More money has been corruptly diverted than spent on facilities, the quality of what has been built is low, power outrages are a daily occurrence, facilities for local people have been closed “for reconstruction,” and the dust and chaos have become overwhelming (blogsochi.ru/content/drugaya-pravda-o-sochi).
Sochi Officials Still Trying to Get Rid of Homeless Animals. Sochi bureaucrats, having been stymied in their plans to poison homeless cats and dogs aver outrage across Russia and the world, have been holding meetings with various groups to try to shift blame to the latter for the animals. So far, most organizations have resisted these attempts (blogsochi.ru/content/zoozashchitniki-sochi and blogsochi.ru/content/obsuzhdenie-perspektiv-stroitelstva-pitomnika-dlya-zhivotnykh-s-merom-sochi).
Journalist
Says Only Putin and the IOC Think Sochi is Appropriate Venue for Winter Games. Kevin Foley says
that “besides Russian President Vladimir Putin, the only other people to see
the area’s potential as a site for a spectacular winter sports competition were
the voting mebmers of the International Olympic Committee.” Both overlooked the
sites “palm trees and temperate climate” and its lack of facilities. After visiting the site, he added, “my
untrained eye tells me tehse guys are way behind schedule even though they’ve
had more than five years to prepare” (mdjonline.com/view/full_story/22336579/article-Putin%E2%80%99s-Russia-readying-%E2%80%98final-charge%E2%80%99-for-Sochi-Olympics?instance=secondary_story_left_column).
Moscow Security Analyst Says Sochi is Like Beirut as a Venue for
Games. Yegor Engelgard, an
independent Moscow security analyst, told Reuters that holding the competition
in Sochi with regard to security is “almost like having the Olympics in Beirut”
www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/24/us-usa-explosions-olympics-russia-idUSBRE93N0TQ20130424).
And another analyst says that after Boston, “the Sochi Games will now be unsafe
for Americans” (www.independent.ie/videos/world-news/sochi-olympics-unsafe-for-americans-says-russia-analyst-29219018.html).
Moscow Steps Up
Anti-Circassian Propaganda Effort. Because of Circssians opposition to
holding the games at the site of their 1864 expulsion from the North Caucasus,
Moscow has stepped up its anti-Circassian propaganda on all fronts over the
last several weeks (hekupsa.com/cherkesiya/anticherkesizm/749-a-krylov-cherkesskaya-karta, and kavkazoved.info/news/2013/03/21/socialno-politicheskie-vyzovy-zapadnomu-kavkazu-v-preddverii-olimpiady-i.html).
Moscow
Analyst Says Boston Shows Sochi Prime Target for Terrorists. Aleksandr Konovalov, head of Moscow’s
Institute for Strategic Assessments, says that “the Olympics would make a
highly desirable goal for terrorists, offering the maximum publicity” for
minimum effort (bostonglobe.com/sports/2013/04/22/marathon-bombings-renew-concerns-about-security-sochi-olympics/Bffa2Aq9lI6IcInIkrZigO/story.html).
Analyst
Says Sochi Effort Shows What’s Wrong with Putin’s Russia. According to Yuri Tkachenko, everything that
has gone wrong in Sochi shows what’s wrong with the system Vladimir Putin has
imposed on Russia as a whole – corruption, incompetence, bold promises and
little follow through (blogsochi.ru/content/vertikal-vlasti-skvoz-prizmu-olimpiiskoi-stolitsy).
Sochi
Residents Tell Mayor and His Staff to “Go Home” and Leave Them in Peace. Fed up with the arrogance and incompetence of
Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov who regularly claims that he has overwhelming popular
support, increasing numbers of Sochi residents have adopted as their slogan “Go
home, Pakhomov,” a reference to the fact that he and most others in his
administration were parachuted into the region by Moscow from somewhere else
and do not reflect local interests and concerns (blogsochi.ru/content/pakhomov-%C2%ABgo-home%C2%BB-skazali-sochintsy and blogsochi.ru/content/%C2%ABprikhodite-knyazhit-i-vladet-nami%C2%BB).
Moscow
Prepares Olympians in Special Military Unit. Much like their Soviet
predecessors, the Russian authorities have created a special military unit to
train competitors for the Sochi Olympics. The swearing in of these special
soldiers has been scheduled to take place in Moscow on May 19 (vesti-sochi.tv/olimpiada/16552-sportivno-olimpijskaja-rota-dast-prisjagu-v-mae).
Weather
Could Doom Some Sochi Competitions.
If the weather next year is normal, it will be difficult to hold many of
the competitions around Sochi that require snow outside, even with the
stockpiling of frozen snow from this year, but if the weather is even slightly
warmer than usual, many of them will become simply impossible, observers say (hekupsa.com/mnenie/blogi/500-olimpiada-2014-ya-idu-po-asfaltu-v-lyzhi-obutyj).
Sochi Residents
Wonder Why Russian Athletes Now Do So Much Worse than Soviet Ones. According to
one writer, many people in Sochi wonder why competitors for the Russian
Federation do so much worse on average than did those for the USSR, reflecting
that it may be a lack of enthusiasm for the new rulers and widespread
corruption which affects some commands (blogsochi.ru/content/sochi-kotoryi-ne-pokazyvayut-mok-post-12).
Moscow Working
Hard to Block Sponsors from Withdrawing from Sochi. Few global companies have signed on as
sponsors for the Sochi games, but those which have already have longterm
agreements with the Russian government on other things and are under pressure
not to back away from Sochi, according to marketing experts. One of them added
that Moscow may keep them from dropping the competition from their advertising
budget but will be unlikely to attract many others: “I don’t believe Rusia is a
key market that many people are desperate to crack,” he told “Businessweek”(www.businessweek.com/articles/2013-04-22/could-boston-mayhem-hit-sochi-olympics).
Sochi Games Not
only Most Expensive But Most Cynical in Olympic History. Georgy
Znamensky says that “the Winter Olympiad of 2014 will go into history not only
as the most expensive – I would even cll it platinum-iridium considering the
fabulous sums that have gone for its preparation – but also the most cynical”
given what it shows about the attitude of Russia’s rulers to the peoples of
Russia (svoim.info/201316/?16_1_3).
Boston Killings
Show ‘New General of Terrorists’ Will Target Sports Events. In what has to
be a major concern for the Russian government, two Moscow writers say, what
happened in Boston “shows that a new generation of terrorists ‘has returned’ to
sports competitions” and could easily target high-profile events like the Sochi
games (profile.ru/article/olimpiiskoe-nespokoistvie-75585).
Nart Sagas May
Be Included in Sochi Propaganda Effort. One analyst has suggested that Moscow
use the Nart sagas of the North Caucasus at Sochi to show its support of the
peoples of that region, an indication of just how far Moscow is not prepared to
go to mollify people there (stoletie.ru/rossiya_i_mir/cherkesskaja_karta_419.htm).
Moscow
‘Relatively Nervous’ About Sochi Security, IOC Official Says. Russian officials are “relatively nervous”
about Olympic security given problems in nearby areas, Gianfranco Kasper, a
member of the IOC’s coordination commission. “We always know how tight the
security is in Russia now,” and it will only increase after Boston (ajc.com/news/news/world/russia-sochi-security-tight-after-boston-bombs/nXRZy/
).
Sochi Residents
Fed Up with Power Outages and Rising Prices.
The approach of the Olympics has brought with it multiple power outrages
every day and dramatically higher prices for city services, leaving residents
angry, at risk and often without necessary access to those services (blogsochi.ru/content/tolko-bezbozhniki-mogut-zarabatyvat-na-starikakh-i-detyakh).
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