Note: This is my 33rd 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
Olympic Torch
Goes Out At Least Four Times in Moscow. In the kind of unscripted event that can
be far more embarrassing for a government than anything else because it can’t
by definition be stage-managed, the
Olympic torch went out at least four times in the Kremlin and then in the city
of Moscow on television, threby calling attention to the corrupt ways in which
the con,tract for the torches was let, the incautious statements by officials
that nothing could go wrong, the greed of torchbearers who wanted to sell
theirs online, the efforts of a lighter company to exploit the situation in its
advertising, and apocalyptic suggestions that these proved that the Sochi Games
were a mistake and a looming disaster (rusnovosti.ru/news/285204/,
navalny.livejournal.com/865844.html, blogsochi.ru/content/%C2%ABne-pogasnet-ni-pri-kakikh-obstoyatelstvakh%C2%BB,
rus-obr.ru/days/26786, http://svpressa.ru/sport/article/75382/ kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231305/,
en.rsport.ru/olympics/20131008/692486627.html,
sochi2014.rsport.ru/torchrelay/20131008/692443806.html,
versia.ru/articles/2013/oct/07/missiya_ognya,
vedomosti.ru/sport/news/2878681/fakelnaya_konversiya
polit.ru/article/2013/10/08/olymp_fire/, radulova.livejournal.com/3070831.html grani.ru/tags/sochi/m.219802.html, washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russias-olympic-torch-flames-out-again/2013/10/07/04198cba-2f5f-11e3-9ddd-bdd3022f66ee_story.html,
regions.ru/news/2480071/, bfm.ru/news/232082?doctype=article,
tvrain.ru/articles/olimpijskij_ogon_pogas_v_moskve_v_tretij_raz-353974/, newizv.ru/politics/2013-10-08/190332-olimpijskaja-zasada.html,
tjournal.ru/paper/olympics-torch-ebay, insidethegames.biz/olympics/winter-olympics/2014/1016390-zippo-drop-cheeky-olympic-torch-facebook-campaign-after-accused-of-ambush-marketing
and kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231437/).
FSB to Conduct
Unprecedented Surveillance at Sochi, Soldatov and Borogan Claim. Russia’s leading independent investigators of
Moscow’s security agencies, Aleksandr Soldatov and Irina Borogan of
Agentura.ru, say in a report that has
attracted broad attention in Russia and Europe that the FSB is preparing to
monitor athletes and visitors at the Sochi Games in unprecedented and highly
invasive ways. Russian officials insist
that security was even tighter at London and is required given the unsettled nature
of the North Caucasus, but the Soldatov-Borogan report argues that the FSB is
in a position technically and politically to do more than any security agency
before it (agentura.ru/english/projects/Project_ID/sochi/ gazeta.ru/social/2013/10/07/5695813.shtml,
Moscow’s
Media Visit to Sochi Backfires. A Moscow-organized
visit of Russian journalists to Sochi has backfired with almost all of them
reporting that the city is a mess, that security is at absurd levels, and that
it is unlikely to be ready in time for the Olympiad. Still worse, the journalists said that people
are not welcome there, that the toilets recall those of Soviet times, and that
Sochi hoteliers routinely award themselves several stars when they deserve
none, comments that have been picked up by other Russian and international
media (echo.msk.ru/blog/iaremenko/1173758-echo/).
Even Russian Orthodox
Priests Now Cast Doubts on Sochi.
Surveys of the religious in Russia have found that a significant number
of Russian Orthodox priests think that the Sochi Games are a mistake and that the
money being spent there could be better invested in human needs, an unexpected
shift in opinion from a group that all too often has been willing to support
whatever the Kremlin does and to justify it to their congregations (pravmir.ru/nuzhna-li-rossii-olimpiada-v-sochi-1/
and echo.msk.ru/blog/kuraev_andrey/1172028-echo/).
Moscow Provokes
Georgia Into Reconsidering a Boycott of Sochi Games. The new Georgian government had signaled that
Georgian athletes would attend the games unless Moscow politicized them, but
that is just what Moscow has done in naming one of its heroes of the August
2008 war against Georgia as a bearer of the Olympic torch. That action, even more than Russian involvement
in moving the South Osetian border, has reopened the issue of a boycott in
Georgia. President Mikhail Saakashvili and others are now calling for one, a
petition is being circulated demanding it, and protesters have burned the
Russian flag and denounced the Russians as occupiers. Others in Tbilisi have
appealed for calm, but Russian overreaching in this case may drive Georgia to a
boycott after all (apsny.ge/2013/soc/1380855368.php,
regnum.ru/news/polit/1716202.html,
facebook.com/events/521524811250036/?fref=tck,
newsgeorgia.ru/politics/20131007/215931012.html,
kasparov.ru/material.php?id=5253EACED4DFC,
dfwatch.net/petition-calling-on-georgia-to-boycott-sochi-olympics-73202, kavpolit.com/olimpijskoe-nespokojstvie-2/,
businessweek.com/news/2013-10-09/georgian-activists-seek-sochi-olympics-boycott-on-border-dispute and kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231479/).
Moscow Already
Embarrassing Itself on Disabilities Issue.
Russian officials are concerned that they will not be able to fill the enormous
Sochi venues for the Paralympics that follow the Winter Games (dyingrussia.wordpress.com/2013/10/06/will-russia-show-itself-disabled-in-sochi/).
But whether that fear proves true – and it is worth noting that Moscow did not
pursue hosting the Paralympics but was required to host them if it wanted the
Olympiad – Russian officials have already embarrassed themselves in Sochi on a
matter of importance to the disabled: they have closed that city’s office of
the All-Russian Society of the Deaf, having given its officers only two days
before being thrown into the streets (sochi-24.ru/obshestvo/departament-merii-sochi-poprosil-na-vyhod-invalidov.2013109.68986.html).
Tishkov Releases
Documents Early to Counter Circassian Genocide Claims. Valery Tishkov, the director of the Moscow
Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, has released a collection of documents
on the Russian conquest of Circassian territories to counter Circassian
suggestions that their nation was the victim of a genocide. The selected
documents by themselves do not disprove what the Circassians have said, but
their early release does suggest that Moscow is still very worried by
Circassian activism (kavpolit.com/olimpiada-budet/
and kavkazoved.info/news/2013/10/04/pereselenie-cherkesov-v-osmanskuju-imperiu-po-materialam-rossijskih-arhivov-1860-1865.html).
Russian
Officials Seek to Close Environmental Watch on the North Caucasus. Russian officials are misuing the courts and
police raids to try to close down as “a foreign agent” the Environmental Watch
on the North Caucasus, a group that has bedeviled Moscow by its reports of
illegal actions involving the construction of Putin’s dacha there and other
actions (facebook.com/notes/environmental-watch-on-north-caucasus/plainclothes-officers-hunt-for-ewnc-coordinator/10152000766863833 and ewnc.org/node/12762).
Officials Take a
Differentiated Approach to Illegal Buildings.
Ilegal buildings owned by those with connections to the powers that be
are generally allowed to stand, while those whose owners lack such connections
are torn down with much fanfare, a measure, Sochi residents believe, of the
amount of corruption in their Olympic city (blogsochi.ru/content/izbiratelnyi-snos).
Sochi Officials
Fail to Install Water Meters in Apartments.
Construction of apartment buildings in Sochi has been so fast and
haphazard that officials have failed to install required meters for each of the
apartments in any particular complex. As a result, residents will have to pay a
common amount, much as they did in Soviet times, but at far higher rates. This practice has led to widespread
complaints (blogsochi.ru/content/bespredel-koshchunstva).
Despite Promises
and Law, Olympic Contractors Continue Taking Sand from Mzymta River. Despite repeated promises to end the practice
and existing Russian laws on environmental protection, Olympic contractors are
continuing to dredge the Mzymta River for sand.
“We had been so hoping for a miracle,” nearby residents say (blogsochi.ru/content/mzymta).
Main Olympic
Stadium a ‘Disaster,’ Moscow News
Says.
With fewer than four months left to the opening of the Sochi Olympics, the
Fisht Olympic Stadium is “a disaster,” according to Ivan Nechepurenko, a Moscow
News journalist. Some of the problems
have arisen because officials keep changing the plans; others reflect bad
organizing; and still others reflect the fact that infrastructure is being put
in after rather than before any construction took place. "They haven't even started
to paint the walls inside or lay floors on the concrete
staircases," said Aleksandr Valov, editor of local news website
Blogsochi.ru. According to auditor Aleksandr Piskunov,
"contractors are deliberately
procrastinating in order to create a situation in which
the government will have to finish the project at any cost."
Such delays entail significant risks:
"if
the stadium's opening is delayed, the ceremony's script will have to be
changed, which will lead to immeasurable reputational and moral
losses." At present, officials are conducting rehearsals at the Bolshoy
Ice Dome, even though it seats fewer than a quarter of the Fisht facility (themoscowtimes.com/olympic_coverage/article/with-4-months-left-main-sochi-stadium-a-disaster/487702.html).
Moscow Says
Sochi Faciliies ‘Safe from Natural Disaster.’
In the wake of flooding that overwhelmed much of Sochi, mudslides and
earthquakes, Russia’s emergency situations ministry issued a statement saying
that its “interagency working group” has concluded that there is “a high degree
of safety of Olympic facilities against natural threats”(voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_10_10/Sochi-Olympic-facilities-safe-against-natural-disasters-minister-2103/).
IOC Head
Promises to Add Gay Rights to Olympic Charter – But Only After Sochi. In a letter to LGBT activists, Thomas Bach,
the new head of the International Olympic Committee, called for a change in the
Olympic Charter to include LGBT rights, but he said that such a change would
come only after the Sochi Games and that his group could not challenge Russia’s
anti-gay law. (slate.com/blogs/outward/2013/10/09/sochi_games_is_the_olympic_symbolism_machine_out_of_gas.html?wpisrc=burger_bar).
Sochi Man
Arrested on Drugs and Weapons Charges.
Sochi officials said they had arrested a 34-year-old resident for
manufacturing and sale of illegal drugs and possession of illegal guns as well
(sochinskie-novosti.com/2013/10/09/).
‘Persons
Without Citizenship’ Equated to Foreigners in Russian Deportation Effort. Lawyers in
Sochi say that those who do not have citizenship are being treated in exactly
the same way as those who are citizens of a foreign state. They suffer one
additional burden: they are sent to the countries that the Russian authorities
believe they came from regardless of any evidence to the contrary (http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231349/).
Caucasus Games
Provide Athletes, Officials With Another Pre-Sochi Test. The fourth annual Caucasus Games, which
this year took place in Pyatigorsk, provided both athletes and organizers to
test their preparations for Sochi. Many of the competitors hope to go on to
Sochi, and organizers said they would like to hold similar competitions in
other regions of Russia, including the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District (kavpolit.com/pobedy-i-porazheniya-kavkazskix-igr/).
FSB Holds 15th
Meeting on Sochi Security FSB director
Aleksandr Bortnikov chaired the 15th meeting his agency has held on
Sochi security since 2012 with its own officers and representatives of other
force structures. He said that the
perimeter of the Olympic park will be protected by video cameras and electronic
warning devices (blogsochi.ru/content/nak-obsudil-mery-po-obespecheniyu-bezopasnosti-olimpiady-2014-v-sochi).
Voice of Russian
Commentator Dismisses Concerns about FSB Spying at Sochi. Dmitry Babich, a political commentator for
Voice of Russia, said that Russian and British stories about FSB “spying” on
visitors to the Sochi Olympics are simply a rehash of “all the things that
frighten a reader of the British and American mass media about Russia.” Moreover, he said, if Moscow analysts Andrey
Soldatov and Irina Borogan were right in saying that the FSB was using
“Stalinist methods.” If that were the
case, Babich said, “the last people we would be reading all over the Western
press would be [the two of them] because they would be in some other places
described by Alexander Solzhenitsyn whom they dislike so much” (voiceofrussia.com/2013_10_09/Let-s-just-put-some-random-words-FSB-Sochi-spying-4373/).
Sochi Not
‘Triumph of the Will’ But Rather ‘Triumph of Corruption,’ Russian Journalist
Says. Vladimir Gechaninov writes that
those who compare Putin’s Sochi Games to Hitler’s in Berlin are mistaken
because Hitler’s prompted films like Lili Riefenstahl’s “Triumph of the Will”
while Putin’s are “a triumph of corruption and flunkeyism” (forum-msk.org/material/kompromat/10071464.html).
Sochi Represents
Putin’s Effort to Find National Symbol for Russia, Moscow Commentator Says. Andrey Ivanov says that the Putin regime is
“trying to find new national symbols” by organizing things like the sochi
Olympics.” But he suggests that this
effort is likely to fail because “no one knows” just what Russia now is (svpressa.ru/society/article/75464/).
Sochi Will Be
Kremlin’s ‘Apogee of Shame,’ Russian Regionalist Site Says. Ingria.info, which serves as a site for the
Ingermanland movement says that Sochi is nothing more than “a black hole”
through which the Kremlin pours the money of Russians into the hands of its
favored oligarchs. As such, it
represents “the apogee of shame” of the current occupants of the Kremlin and “a
Putin parody of the Evil Empire” (ingria.info/lenta/865-2013-10-08-10-38-07).
Ecologists Must
Demand New Environmental Standards for Olympics, EWNC Lawyer Says. Yulia Genin, a lawyer for the Ecological
Watch on the North Caucasus, says that “Olympic Games more often will take
place in countries like Russia, China and Brasil where environmental compliance
is weak. The damage might be irreparable. And it is high time for human rights and
environmental NGOs to unite … At this point of human development, the Olympics
is a hypocrisy. We need to change it. EWNC is already doing so. And it is not as
difficult as it may seem: public can change giant Nike’s or Apple’s policies.
Why are the Olympics any different? Massive media coverage, protests and legal
tools are available for such change and support of organizations like EWNC” (sochiwatchdotorg.wordpress.com/2013/10/07/to-the-question-of-cracked-environmental-pillar-of-olympic-movement-oppression-of-environmental-watch-on-north-caucasus-by-russian-authorities-and-importance-of-this-environmental-ngo-in-protection-o/).
Medvedev’s Sochi Price Freeze Won’t Stop Increases,
Experts Say.
Businesses are already finding ways to work around the price freezes
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev called for in advance of the Sochi
Games. Consequently, while his order may offer new possibilities for corruption,
it will not halt price increases (newtimes.ru/articles/detail/72231/).
Russian
Tradition of Lying Harms the Olympics, Moscow Commentator Says. Yevgeny Zubarev says that “the problem of the
Sochi Olympic torches is not htat they go out. That has happened at other
Olympiads. And it is not in their high cost: those for the London games cost
more. The problem is in the habit of lying which has not left the
representatives of the Russian elite, not is bureaucrats, not its businessmen,
and not the journalists of government mass media” (rosbalt.ru/blogs/2013/10/08/1184819.html).
Russian-Ukrainian
Boxing Match Shows How Raw Ethnic Feelings Are. A recent fight between Vladimir Klichko, a
Ukrainian boxer, and Aleksandr Povetkin, a Russian one, and the reaction of
Russian fans shows just how close to the surface ethnic tensions are and how a
sports competition can enflame them into violence, according to a “Novaya gazeta”
commentary (novayagazeta.ru/sports/60363.html and mn.ru/sports/20131006/358573353.html).
Sochi Residents
Hope They Can Expel Kubantsy After Games.
Sochi residents are upset about many people who have arrived to exploit
the economic possibilities that the Olympic construction projects offer. Some
of those are ethnic, but many are just regional. And among those Sochi
residents would most like to see go away are people from the Kuban region (blogsochi.ru/content/nezavisimaya-gazeta-kubantsev-nadeyutsya-vytesnit-iz-sochi-posle-olimpiady).
‘Independent Journalism Forbidden’ in Sochi, Journalists
Without Borders Says.
The international media watchdog organization, Journalists without Borders, has
begun a campaign to call attention to the increasing suppression of media
freedom in the Russian Federation. The campaign is called “Independent
Journalism – the Only Forbidden Form of Sport in Sochi” (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231282/
and
Human Rights
Watch Offers Alternative Olympic Torch Route in Russia. HRW has launched an online effort to call
attention to human rights abuses in the Russian Federation by suggesting a map
which moves not along the Olympic Torch route approved by the Kremlin but
rather from one site of abuse to anther (hrw.org/sites/default/files/features/russia_sochi_map_2013/index.html
and
Sochi Games
Uniting Circassians, Activist Says. Despite or perhaps because of their
opposition to holding the Olympics on the site of the Russian genocide against
their nation 150 years ago, Circassians living in the North Caucasus and the
countries of the Middle East and Europe are now more united than at any time
since their expulsion from their homeland in 1864, according to a Circassian
activist. That has created a new reality with which the Russian government will
have to cope long after the Olympics are over, Merissa Khurma says (huffingtonpost.com/merissa-khurma/the-sochi-connection_b_4046063.html).
Rains Wash Out
Road to Illegal Putin Dacha.
Recent storms have wiped out the road to the site of the Putin dacha
that is being illegaly constructed on the territory of the Caucasian nature
preserve, according to Ecological Watch on the North Caucasus which has
attracted international attention to this travesty of justice (sochi-24.ru/obshestvo/reka-shahe-smyvaet-dorogu-k-putinskomu-kurortu.2013107.68883.html).
In China,
Corrupt Officials Get Punished; in Russia, They Get Protected, Sochi Activist Says. Roman Shirakyev
compares the treatment of a Sochi official convicted of corruption with that of
a Chinese official convicted of the same thing. In China, the corrupt official
was sentenced to a long term in prison; in Russia, the official got off via
appeal (blogsochi.ru/content/chem-otlichaetsya-kitai-ot-rossii).
Moscow
Journalist Urges Russians to Buy Dachas in Spain, Not Sochi. Having just visited the Olympic city, Aleksandr
Kolesnichenko, an editor at “Novyye izvestiya,” says that he has concluded that
the situation in Sochi is so bad that anyone thinking about buying a vacation
home should choose a site “somewhere in Bulgaria or Turkey or in Spain” before
wasting his or her money in the southern Russian city (newizv.ru/society/2013-10-07/190228-pochemu-ja-ne-poehal-by-otdyhat-v-sochi.html).
Unlike Moscow
1980, Sochi 2014 is ‘Shameful Page’ in Russian History, Blogger Says. Nikolay
Yaremenko, a former editor at Moscow’s Sports Radio, says that even though
there was a boycott, the Moscow Games in 1980 were still a bright spot in the
country’s history but adds that the Sochi Games next year promise to be “a
shameful page of contemporary Russian history” even if there is no boycott.
That is because the games feature all the problematic elements of the current
Russian regime (echo.msk.ru/blog/iaremenko/1172284-echo/).
Canadian TV Airs
Program on How Putin Won Sochi Games for Russia. The CBC showed “Putin’s Road to Sochi,” a
two-hour examination of how Vladimir Putin, by means of intense personal
lobbying, won the Olympiad for Russia.
According to one reviewer, the program was “a jaunty, sardonic doc that
will eventually knock you off your skates” (theglobeandmail.com/arts/television/the-story-of-how-sochi-got-the-olympics-will-knock-you-off-your-skates/article14680117/?cmpid=rss1).
Sochi Officials
Stockpiling Blood and Medicine for Games.
In order to be prepared, Sochi officials have begun stockpiling supplies
of blood and medicines for the Sochi Games (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231038/).
Police Block
Circassian Action in Defense of Homeless Animals. The plight of homeless animals and the
willingness of officials to kill rather than take care of them continues to
rile people in the North Caucasus and elsewhere in Russia. A demonstration in
Maykop on behalf of the rights of animals, however, as unable to begin before
police moved in to confiscate the banners and signs of those taking part (ewnc.org/node/12776).
Greeks Protest Passing of Olympic Torch to Russia. Several dozen LGBT
activists organized a peaceful demonstration in Athens against the passing of
the Olympic torch to Russian officials. The protesters held signs saying
“Homophobia is not int eh Olympic Spirit” and “Love is Not Propaganda” (msn.foxsports.com/olympics/story/athens-activists-protest-at-sochi-flame-passage-100513).
Sochi Officials
Continue to Persecute Worker Who Complained of Beatings. Mardirov Demerchyan, a Sochi worker who said
that he had not been paid by his employer and then was beaten by police when he
did so, continues to face charges in the Olympic city. Officials have now charged him with making
false accusations against the police despite photographs on the internet
showing that he suffered a seirous beating (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/231089/).
US State
Department Cautions LGBTs about Russia.
On its web page about travel to the Russian Federation, the US
Department of State says that “discrimination based on sexual orientation is
widespread in Russia. Harassment, threats, and acts of violence targeting LGBT
individuals have occurred. Government officials have been known to make
derogatory comments about LGBT persons. In June 2013, the State Duma passed a
law banning "the propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations" to
minors. Russian citizens found guilty of violating the law could face a fine of
up to 100,000 rubles ($3,100). Foreign citizens face similar fines, up to
15 days in jail, and deportation. The law is vague as to what will be
considered propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations. As a result,
commentators have suggested that the law may make it a crime to promote LGBT
equality in public. Violence against the LGBT community has increased sharply
since the law was passed, including entrapment and torture of young gay men by
neo-Nazi gangs and the murder of multiple individuals due to their sexual orientation.
Many view this legislation as encouraging such violence, with the majority of
attacks against members of the LGBT community going unreported” (travel.state.gov/travel/cis_pa_tw/cis/cis_1006.html#special_circumstance).
Moscow Blocks
FIFA Investigator from Entering Russia.
The Russian authorities have blocked FIFA’s chief investigator, Michael
Garcia, from entering Russia as he examines voting procedures for the 2018 and
2022 World Cup competitions. It appears
likely that the ban was imposed because of Garcia’s involvement witht the US prosecutor of
Russian arms merchant Viktor Bout (http://www.sportsmole.co.uk/off-the-pitch/news/russia-ban-fifa-investigator-from-entering-country_108979.html).
Bolotnoye Case Could
Be Continued Until After Sochi. Because of
Western attention to Russia’s crackdown on all dissent, the case involving
participants in the Bolotnoye protests may be continued until after the Sochi
Olympiad in order to avoid providing supporters of such groups with yet another
occasion to protest, lawyers say (svpressa.ru/politic/article/75217/).
Does Putin
Secretly Wish for a Sochi Boycott? One Canadian blogger has suggested that
Vladimir Putin may secretly hope for a boycott because it is the only way that
Russia could run up a big medal count.
As the blogger puts it, Russians are prepared to forgive Putin almost
anything except a clear defeat (nasha-canada.livejournal.com/1343400.html Бойкот Олимпиады?..).
New
Book on Sochi Genocide Out in Germany. A new book, “Der vergessene Volkermord:
Sotschi und die Tragodie der Tscherkessen” by Manfred Quiring has been
published in Germany and is available via Amazon.de (amazon.de/Der-vergessene-V%C3%B6lkermord-Trag%C3%B6die-Tscherkessen/dp/3861537338).
Roundup of Gastarbeiters in Sochi Continues ‘Like
Clockwork,’ Officials Say. The roundup
of illegal foreign workers in Sochi is going ahead “like clockwork,” those
involved in its say, with the numbers now under detention before expulsion
exceeding plans. But other observers
note that this effort is spreading fear among the population and concerns about
contractors about what will happen next, whether this crackdown will spread to
other parts of Russia, and, more immediately, whether the departure of
gastarbeiters will allow the Olympic contractors to finish on time (svpressa.ru/society/article/75242/,
blogsochi.ru/content/kavkazskaya-politika-vydvorenie-migrantov-rabotaet-kak-chasy
and sochinskie-novosti.com/%D0%BC%D0%B8%D0%B3%D1%80%D0%B0%D0%BD%D1%82-%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BA-%D1%83%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%BA%D0%B0/).
Economic
Conditions Seen Decaying in Sochi Region After Games. Despite Moscow’s suggestion that the Sochi
Games will give a permanent boost to the economy of Sochi and the Noth
Caucasus, a new study concludes that the number of entrepreneurs will decline
in the Kuban by seven or eight percent in 2015 alone, an indication of further
recession ahead (kuban.rbc.ru/krasnodar_freenews/04/10/2013/880489.shtml).
Russian Figure
Skater Wants to Compete as Estonian at Sochi.
Aleksandr Zaboyev wants to obtain Estonian citizenship and compete for
that country along with his Estonian partner Natalya Zabiyakol. Zaboyev’s
supporters are already preparing his application to do so (sochinskie-novosti.com/2013/10/04).
Olympic Torch to Be Accompanied Across Russia by Mobile Souvenir Shop. A mobile shop selling Olympic souvenirs will
accompany the Olympic torch every step of its 27,000 kilometer course across
the Russian Federation (vesti-sochi.tv/olimpiada/20180-sputnikom-olimpijskogo-ognja-stanet-mobilnyj-olimpijskij-magazin).
Sochi
Games Point to End of Russian Federation Just as 1980 Moscow Games Did for
USSR, Some Say. Russians have a penchant for the apocalyptic,
and some of them say that the problems that have been revealed as well as those
that have been exacerbated in the run-up to the Sochi Olympiad suggest this
competition could easily anticipate the end of the Russian Federation just as the pomp and circumstance of the 1980
Moscow Games did for the Soviet Union (novayagazeta.ru/columns/60358.html
and avrom-caucasus.livejournal.com/308876.html).
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