Note: This is my 46th 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 Gets
Credit for Relaxing Restrictions on Protests ... Having earlier
issued a ban on all demonstrations in Sochi, Russian President Vladimir Putin
received praise from the International Olympic Committee, some Russian
commentators and much of the Western media for modifying that ban to allow
protests at special sites in Sochi during the Olympiad if the demonstrations
are not connected with the Games themselves and if organizers receive
permission from the interior ministry, the FSB and the local authorities,
effectively shifting the responsibility for rejecting such applications from
the Kremlin to the bureaucracy rather than respecting Russian constitutional
guarantees for such meetings (kremlin.ru/acts/20026, espn.go.com/olympics/story/_/id/10241783/vladimir-putin-backs-ban-demonstrations-2014-sochi-olympics, ria.ru/sochi2014_news/20140104/987901056.html, forum-msk.org/material/news/10183106.html, kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236203/, sochi2014.rsport.ru/sochi2014/20140104/712604345.html,and blogsochi.ru/content/putin-razreshil-mitingi-v-sochi-vo-vremya-olimpiady).
... But
Activists and Analysts Say His New Rules Won’t Allow Real Ones ... Boris Nemtsov, a
leader of the Russian opposition, Nikolay Alekseyev, an LGBT activist, and Lev Levinson, an expert at the
Moscow Institute of Human Rights, among others, say that Putin’s latest move
effectively bans all meeetings but
allows the Russian president to escape personal responsibility for prohibiting
them. And Jane Buchanan, associate director of Human Rights Watch, says that
Russia’s move to create protest zones represents “an assault on free speech”
rather than a defense of it and should be evaluated as a public relations stunt
rather than a change of heart by Vladimir Putin (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236217/ and policyreview.eu/despite-prisoner-amnesty-oppressive-russia-escalating-harassment-of-dissenters/).
... And Russian
Commentator Lampoons Putin’s Announcement. In a blog post on Kasparov.ru,
Sergey Lunin lampoons Putin’s latest move a “a big step forward,” noting that
the inmates of Hitler’s concentration camps could never “even dream” of having
such spaces to express their grievances against the Nazis. Creating special
zones for permitted protests thus demonstrates “how much humanity has improved”
since then, Lunin says (kasparov.ru/material.php?id=52C8564A2DB21).
Putin Promises
‘Total Annihilation’ of Terrorists. In his New Year’s message to the
Russian people, President Vladimir Putin promised as he has in the past to
“strongly and decisively continue the battle against terrorists until their
total annihilation.” Shortly thereafter,
he arrived in Sochi to inspect, among other things, security arrangements that
some are calling “a ring of steel” around the Olympic city. Accompanying him, among others, was Federal
Migration Service director Konstantin Romodanovsky who has taken the lead in
expelling illegal gastarbeiters and tightening registration requirements for
workers from other parts of the North Caucasus and Central Asia (news.nationalpost.com/2014/01/04/can-russia-make-the-olympic-games-in-sochi-safe-from-terrorists/, telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/vladimir-putin/10550712/Vladimir-Putin-makes-final-inspection-of-Sochis-ring-of-steel-security.htmland vz.ru/news/2014/1/7/667047.html).
Sochi Becomes a
‘Closed City’ on Russian Christmas. Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s decree ordering unprecedentedly tight security for
the Sochi Olympiad went into effect on January 7, a “Christmas present” that
“killed the holiday spirit” not only in Sochi but throughout the region,
according to Vladimir Kimayev, head of the YABLOKO party organization in that
city. Many said they agreed with the need for enhanced security but expressed
concern that officials were exceeding their briefs, jumping the gun to enforce
the decree, over-conscientiously checking documents,and violating the Russian
constitution. Some suggested that fences and locks had become the symbol of the
resort city, and others complained that restrictions on cars and streets were
getting in the way of normal activities for an absurdly long period. Some of
these excesses may be ended after a shakedown period, but others are likely to
endure. It certainly did nothing to calm
the situation when a senior Russian official said that “all divisions
responsible for ensuring the security of guests at the games are being put on
combat alert,” a statement many see as pointing to a long siege of the city. At
the same time, there have been some lighter moments: One policeman tried to
prevent a Soch resident from entering a restroom simply because the man could
not produce his documents (privetsochi.ru/blog/bred_sochi/40000.html).
(kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236338/, privetsochi.ru/blog/sochi2014/40177.html, kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236284/, grani.ru/tags/sochi/m.223146.html, privetsochi.ru/blog/bred_sochi/40156.html,
blogsochi.ru/content/sochi-s-segodnyashnego-dnya-stal-zakrytym-gorodom, blogsochi.ru/content/usilennye-mery-bezopasnosti-vvodyatsya-s-segodnyashnego-dnya-v-sochi, privetsochi.ru/blog/auto_sochi/40196.html,privetsochi.ru/blog/auto_sochi/40142.html,
privetsochi.ru/blog/grazhdannskoe_obhestvo_goroda_sochi/40154.html, privetsochi.ru/blog/auto_sochi/40142.html, sofrep.com/31068/sochi-2014-russian-special-ops-troops-deployed-protect-mountainous-perimeter/, privetsochi.ru/blog/bred_sochi/40000.html
Russian Security
Efforts Unlikely to Be Totally Effective, Soldatov Says ... Andrey Soldatov, Russia’s leading
independent expert on that country’s security services, says Moscow is using a
combination of old-style Soviet control methods and new technologies to defend
against terrorism but has done little or nothing to promote what are the most
important means of doing so: the collection of significant intelligence about
the opposition and the sharing of information among the various government
offices involved. Those are areas in
which “the Russian special services have always had problems.” As a result, security at the time of the
games cannot be taken as guaranteed and discussion of the Sochi Olympics has
shifted from a focus on sports to one on security. Soldatov added that he is far from certain
whether he personally would go to Sochi under the circumstanes (svoboda.org/content/article/25221821.html).
... Other
Experts Concur. Russian and Western experts generally concur
with Soldatov’s conclusion, with most suggesting that Moscow may be able to
prevent a terrorist attack at the Olympic venues but not block one in outlying
areas. Among those taking that view are Ariel Cohen of the Heritage Foundation
who says that “Moscow-run security services provide ... poor intelligence work
against terrorist targets,” Masha Gessen, a Russina journalist, who says that
“the Soviet combination of powerlessness and pretence has been recreated, and
Mark Galeotti of New York Univeersity who says that Moscow’s two billion US
dollar investment in Sochi security won’t block attacks outside of Sochi. But he added, as do most, that “insurgents
and terrorists have been able to get through what was meant to be impenetrable
security by paying bribes or just taking advantage of human weaknesses” (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236279/,
usatoday.com/story/opinion/2014/01/02/russia-bombings-putin-sochi-olympics-column/4294453/ and thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/01/02/the-volgograd-bombings-and-the-return-of-big-terror-to-russia.html).
Counter-Terrorist
Regime Introduced in Stavropol after Bodies Found. Moscow has
launched a counter-terrorism operation in Stavropol kray after six bodies were
found in parked cars and an explosive device was discovered nearby. Russia’s
Investigative Committee and the FSB are conducting a security sweep of the
region to try to identify those responsible. Some observers suspect terrorists
from the nearby North Caucasus and link this action to the attempts of
militants to disrupt the Olympics (stavregion.ru/news/2014/01/09/na-territoriyah-predgornogo-i-kirovskogo-rajonov-s/
and bloomberg.com/news/2014-01-09/russia-places-region-near-sochi-on-alert-as-6-found-dead-in-cars.html).
Kuban TV Shows How Easy It Would Be for Terrorists to
Take the Train to Sochi. A six-minute segment on Sovetsky Kuban
television shows how easy it would be for anyone, including a terrorist, to
circumvent the minimal security arrangements at some railway stations (blogsochi.ru/content/sovetskaya-kuban-olimpiiskii-sochi-dostupen-dlya-terroristov).
410 Kuban
Cossacks to Help with Sochi Security. The Kuban Cossack Army says it is
sending 410 of its community to help provide security (en.rsport.ru/olympics/20140109/713711586.html and kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236374/).
US, United
Kingdom Offer Moscow Counter-Terrorism Help.
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel telephoned his Russian counterpart
Sergey Shoygu to offer counter-terorrism assistnace to help make the Sochi
games safe, if such assistance is requested.
Meanwhile, British PrimeMinnsiter David Cameron directed MI-6 to share
with Moscow any information it had that could help prevent terrorist attacks
against Sochi or during the Sochi Games (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236231/, rt.com/news/pentagon-russia-help-sochi-192/ and kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236277/).
FBI to Send Agents
to Help Russia with Sochi Security.
James B. Comey, director of the FBI, said his organization is sending special
agents and support personnel to provide security at the Sochi Games. Approximately
25 will be based in Moscow while a dozen others will be in Sochi itself (washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/fbi-sending-security-help-to-sochi-olympics/2014/01/09/f56f7d5e-7960-11e3-b1c5-739e63e9c9a7_story.html).
No Flights ‘from
Outside the FSU’ Except for Charters or Private Planes Now Allowed to Land at
Sochi.
Among the security arrangements that have now gone into place is a ban on all
flights from outside the former Soviet Union to the Olympic city. Instead, all
regular passengers from the “far” abroad will have to go via Moscow or St.
Petersburg (guardianlv.com/2014/01/sochi-why-the-olympics-will-be-safe/).
Russians Urged
to Defend Their Rights But Not If Facing Police Alone. A Sochi legal affairs expert says that
Russians should defend their rights when they think they are being violated but
not take the risk of doing so when they are facing the police alone. That is necessary to overcome among both the
police and the population the widespread “presumption of guilt” that many
operate under. Any “heroism,” however, should be avoided because it carries
with it great personal risks (privetsochi.ru/blog/grazhdannskoe_obhestvo_goroda_sochi/40135.html).
Tight Security
at Cathedral Where Putin Went Forces Most Residents to Go Elsewhere. Security around the new Sochi cathedral where
Russian President Vladimir Putin attended Russian Christmas services was so
tight that, in the words of Kavka-uzel.ru, “many believersin Sochi preferred to
visit” one of the 34 older Orthodox churches in the city or not attend any (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236314/).
FSB to Retain
Meta-Data from Sochi Meta-Data for Three Years. Andrey Soldatov and Irina Borogan, Russia’s
leading independent specialists on that country’s security services, says that
the meta-data that is being collected by Rostelekom for conversations in and
around Sochi will be retained for three years by the FSB in its database (ej.ru/?a=note&id=24044).
New Ban on
Liquids on Russian Aircraft Outrages Some.
In the name of security for the Sochi Olympics, the Russian government
has banned air travelers inside the country from carrying anything liquid,
including medicines, a move that has outraged some Russians. One commentator, who said he had been a
supporter of the Sochi Games, says that this ban may change his mind. “Perhaps for [others] there exists another
Olympics, but for me,” he said, the games are all about my need and right to
carry my medicines with me (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236331/ and echo.msk.ru/blog/ganapolsky/1234126-echo/).
US Readies Plan for
Mass Evacuation of Athletes from Sochi. USA Today reports that the US
government has prepared a plan for the evacuation of American athletes from
Sochi in the event of a disaster or terrorist attack and has signed a contract
with Global Rescue which calls for, among other things, the preparation of five
jets to implement (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236350/).
Putin Implicitly
Admits Not All Olympic Sites are Fully Ready.
At the start of President Vladimir Putin’s latest visit to Sochi and
despite the insistence of Russian Olympic Committee officials that Sochi is
ready for guests, aides to the Kremlin leader said he would be focusing his
attention on those sites where more remains to be done. One sector that Putin
appears to be especially concerned about is the electrical network. He directed
the energy ministry to take control of the problem-plagued branch (mk.ru/politics/russia/news/2014/01/09/968163-putin-poruchil-minenergo-zhestko-kontrolirovat-energosistemu-v-sochi.html and vesti-sochi.tv/olimpiada/22093-putin-proverit-olimpijskie-obekty-gde-est-nedorabotki).
Ufa Paper
Attacks ‘Liberal Rats’ for Opposing Sochi Olympics. According to an article in the main newspaper
of the Bashkortostan capital, Russian “liberals are competing with each other
as to who can spit the most on the approaching Olympics” in Sochi. These “liberals,” the paper says, ignore the
fact that “the Sochi billions work for [Russia’s] economy,” because “the
incomes of citizens and the expenditures of the state are one and the same
thing.” Moreover, the paper says, they
forget that Russia’s prestigeis on the line as well (ufvrem.ru/jce/stati/352-olimpijskij-korabl-i-liberalnye-krysy).
Sochi ‘Tough
Sell’ for US Fans Even Before Volgograd.
Tour firms in the United States say that the Sochi Olympiad was “a tough
sell” even before the Volgograd violence, with one in Chicago saying it was
sending only 50 to Sochi compared to the 350 she organized visits for the
Beijing Games. The location and the
possibility of terrorist violence are only part of the problem, she continued.
Sochi has problems with local transportation and suffers from the lack of
high-end hotels. According to another tour firm in Austin, Texas, Sochi is
becoming “more of an event that people are really happy to watch on TV” rather
than to attend. Bookings for Sochi are also below expectations, the Association
of Tour Operators of Russia says, because of the country’s economic problems.
But it suggests there may be a last-minute burst because Russian travelers
increasingly have been scheduling their holidays not far in advance but shortly
before they go (travelweekly.com/Europe-Travel/Sochi-Olympics-a-tough-sell-even-before-Volgograd-bombings/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TravelWeeklysTopStories+%28Travel+Weekly%27s+Top+Stories%29 and vestikavkaza.ru/articles/2013-god-turoperatory-nazvali-predkrizisnym.html).
Olympiad Loses
Another Star to Injury. Despite
“tough security measures,” “a vastmedia center,” and a highly orchestrated
“torch relay extravaganza,” Russian Sport says, “Sochi’s Olympic organizers
found themselves upstaged by a skier’s knee Tuesday, with just one month to go
until the Games.Lindsay Vonn, the Vancouver 2010 Olympic downhill gold medalist
and one of the Winter Games’ most recognizable faces, will
not compete in Sochi
after succumbing to a knee problem that has dogged her since at least
2007.Other prominent athletes have withdrawn from Sochi in recent months,
including French downhill and giant slalom world champions Marion Rolland and
Tessa Worley, but none of them has the name recognition and marketability of
Vonn, a big name in her own right who has gained extra exposure through her
ongoing relationship with golf star Tiger Woods.” With each such absence, the
Games will likely lose some of television audience advertisers are counting on
(en.rsport.ru/olympics/20140107/713461889.html).
Putin Seeks Gold
in Anti-Terrorist Effort, US Commentator Says.
Writing in Nashville’s Tennessean,
Rachel Marsden says that terrorist threats against Sochi, combine with the
Syrian conflict and Islamist violence, “give Russia the chance to assume a
leadership role in the struggle againt terrorism” and suggest that Russian
President Vladimir Putin will be able to win the gold in that struggle (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236344/).
Anti-Gay
Policies and Attitudes Leading Many Russian LGBTs to Emigrate. Russian LGBTs
say that anti-gay attitudes and policies are now so strong that Russia has
become “an even tougher place to be gay, lesbian, or bisexual” and that as a
result ever more of them are emigrating. Those who remain say that violence
against the LGBT community has those who remain thinking “a lot” about doing
the same thing (theglobeandmail.com/news/world/gay-russias-choice-back-to-the-closet-or-pack-it-in/article16191888/ and buzzfeed.com/davidtuller/far-from-russias-biggest-cities-being-gay-means-being-always).
IOC Member Says
One-Third of Money Spent on Sochi has Gone Missing. Gian-Franco Kasper, a member of the
International Olympic Committee, says that about a third of the 50 billion plus
US dollars spent on the Sochi Olympiad has disappeared instead of being spent
as nominally intended. (That would be some 16 billion US dollars, only slightly
less than Boris Nemtsov estimated had been corruptly diverted in his book on
Sochi.) He also says that Russian President Vladimir Putin views the games as a
matter ofhis prestige, that Putin’s recent amnesties and pardons were taken for
public relations reasons, and that there will be 50,000 security personnel
guarding the games (rusplt.ru/news/chlen-mok-razvorovana-tret-potrachennyih-na-olimpiadu-v-sochi-deneg-77230.html).
Romney Says
Russia Should Not Have Been Selected to Host Olympiad. Saying that if it were his choice, Mitt
Romney, former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential candidate,
says, he would never have awarded Russia an Olympics because its leaders have
not been “particularly collaborative” internationally. “But it’s not my choice,” he continued. “They
are a player on the global stage ... but they do strain the view of people like
myself as to their leadership and their characterization of the Olympic
spirit.” He said that he had no doubt about Vladimir Putin’s “ability to turn
the Black Sea resort of Sochi into a fortress” but that “it’s really the
intelligence work that goes into the Olympics months and years before the
games” that blocks terrorism. Romney
added that it is his “guess that the Russians have done a pretty good job on
the intelligence side of things to keep the most dangerous people away” (bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/01/romney_i_wouldnt_have_given_russia_the_winter_games, espn.go.com/olympics/story/_/id/10246382/mitt-romney-olympic-spirit-threatened-via-sochi-games, vz.ru/news/2014/1/7/667027.html and itar-tass.com/politika/872627).
Australian
Olympians Told Not to Use Social Networks.
Members
of Australia’s Olympic team who have already been told not to travel outside of
the route between their residences and places of competition in Sochi have now
been directed by officials of their national Olympic committee not to make use
of social networks when they are in the southern Russian city. The latter decision appears to reflect both a
desire to avoid the problems some Australian competitors got into with social
networks at the London Games and concerns about Russian plans to monitor social
networks more intensively than ever before (vesti-sochi.tv/olimpiada/22109-olimpijcam-iz-avstralii-zapretili-v-sochi-polzovatsja-socsetjami and latimes.com/travel/deals/la-trb-australia-sochi-olympics-safety-20131231,0,4025327.story#axzz2pKdqRwA9).
Volgograd
Explosions Challenge Russian Assumptions about Sochi Security. Russian officials have expected terrorist
acts involving the Sochi Games to take place in or near that city and to be
carried out by North Caucasians. Instead, the first major actions directed
against the games took place in Volgograd and were implemented by an ethnic
Russian, thus calling into question the assumptions underlying most of Moscow’s
security planning. The Volgograd
bombings, however, did confirm one assumption Moscow has made: any attacks
anywhere in Russia in this period will be linked to Sochi no matter whether
they are or not (newia.info/12670 and rusi.org/analysis/commentary/ref:C52C6F2B741F18/#.UscDarRcUUO).
Nearly 3,000
Russian Citizens have Died from Terrorism Since Putin Came to Power. Despite Vladimir Putin’s claims that he
has brought stability to Russia, at least 2964 Russian citizens have died in
approximately 100 terrorist attacks since he became president, according to the
Global Terrorism Database, numbers far higher than under his predecessor (aljazeera.com/indepth/features/2014/01/fighters-blow-hole-russia-security-plan-20141172210773226.html).
Volgograd
Bombings had Three Goals, Turkish Analyst Says. Kerim Has, an
expert at the USAK Center for Eurasian Studies, says that the Volgograd
bombings had at least three goals: to force a cancellation of the Sochi
Olympics or at least make those thinking about attending nervous, to show that
Vladimir Putin’s “security concept” is incorrect and inadequate and therefore
unlikely to be able to prevent future attack, and to promote ethnic Russian
flight from the North Caucasus so that non-Russian and predominantly Muslim
nations there will become more predominant (turkishweekly.net/columnist/3833/sochi-olympics-and-terrorism-in-russia.html).
Russia Today
Says Sochi is Ready for Visitors; Photographs Show It Isn’t. The Russia
Today television channel continues to insist that Sochi is “ready to
receive guests” for the Olympiad, but photographs taken by residents and posted
online show that there are many facilities that are not yet finished and others
that have been incompletely or only shoddily completed (blogsochi.ru/content/russia-today-sochi-gotov-prinimat-gostei and
privetsochi.ru/blog/auto_sochi/40168.html).
Russian
Authorities Continue Harassment of Sochi Environmentalists. Even as protests in support of Yevgeny
Vitishko, the environmental activist who has been sentenced to three years in
jail, continue in many Russian cities, the authorities in Krasnoyarsk continue
to harass his colleagues by conducting an illegal search of the apartment of
Natalnya Kainovskaya, who like Vitishko, has called attention to the illegal
actions of Krasnodar Governor Aleksandr Tkachev (blogsochi.ru/content/svobodu-evgeniyu-vitishko-detalnoe-razbiratelstvo-po-delu-o-%22dache-tkacheva%22 and blogsochi.ru/content/obyski-u-natali-kalinovskoi-ili-kak-vlast-presleduet-ekologicheskikh-aktivistov-i-pravozashc).
Environmentalists
Win One Case, Appear to Have Lost Another.
Residents of Shapsug auls near Sochi have won their case in court,
supported by Ecological Watch on the North Caucasus, against the excavation of
gravel from a river that flows through their region. They won it, however, only
after Olympic contractors had pulled so much gravel out of the riverbed that it
has affected the ecosystem and at a time when construction is nearly over. Meanwhile, officials continue to stall
through obfuscation another case involving the destruction of areas in the
national park there (ewnc.org/node/13400, blogsochi.ru/content/pamyatniki-prirody-opyat-v-opasnosti and blogsochi.ru/content/ushcherb-svyshe-194-000-000-rublei-administrativnoe-pravonarushenie).
Public Meeting in Sochi Calls for Mayor’s Ouster, Improved
City Services.
Two hundred Sochi residents assembled at a public meeting, which was
organized by the Law and Ordeer NGO and the Social Reform Party, at which they
called for the ouster of the city’s mayor, Anatoly Pakhmov, for his continuing
failure to protect them against Olympic construction and demanded that city
officials improve the provision of basic services like electricity, water,
sewage disposal, and housing (blogsochi.ru/content/massovyi-miting-v-tsentre-goroda-sochi, privetsochi.ru/blog/politics_sochi/40076.html, blogsochi.ru/content/rezolyutsiya-mitinga-5-yanvarya-2014-goda-sochi, http://ewnc.org/node/13387 and http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236245/).
Many Sochi
Residents Continue to Be Without Electricity, Heat, and Water. Unplanned outages of electricity, heat and
water, in addition to all those announced in advance, continue to be the bane
of existence not only for many Sochi residents in their apartments but also of
local hospitals, kindergartens and other public institutions. And ever more rather than fewer have to
confront torn up streets and sidewalks as Olympic contractors race to put in
infrastructure that they did not do earlier.
Some streets have been torn up multiple times, and many sidewalks are
dangerous for pedestrians (blogsochi.ru/content/pochemu-net-sveta-v-nashikh-domakh, sochinskie-novosti.com/2014/01/03/
and privetsochi.ru/blog/bred_sochi/39980.html).
More Travails of
the Olympic Torch. The Olympic torch continues to be carried
across Russia in what was intended to mobilize the population for the Games,
but instead, its passage has only highlighted problems. Not only did the torch
continue to go out when it wasn’t supposed to, but officials blocked an
ambulance to allow it to pass, prompting some to ask “what is more important:
the torch or the life of an individual?”
Elsewhere, people put up signs complaining about mafia-control of the
courts, hopeful that doing so might attract broader attention because of media
coverage of the torch, or about the enormous sums of money being spent on Sochi
when basic needs of the Russian population continue to go unmet. In Kirov, one
man voiced his frustration by shouting “Go to hell with your torch and take the
Olympics with you!” (privetsochi.ru/blog/Flood/40080.html, triboona.ru/posts/view/465, and forum-msk.org/material/news/10185668.html).
Sochi Residents
Warned about Wild Dogs, Con Artists.
Anyone walking through Sochi at night should be wary of being attacked
by a band of wild dogs, and all Sochi residents and visitors should beware of
the increasing number of con artists who are now plaguing the city, residents
warn (privetsochi.ru/blog/extreme_sochi/40185.html and privetsochi.ru/blog/Flood/40158.html).
Sochi Policemen
on the Beat Shouldn’t Be Blamed for Excesses, Resident Says. Residents and bloggers should stop
criticizing low-ranking policemen on the beat for the excesses their bosses
have ordered, one resident says.
They “are also people who are suffering
from the Olympics. Just imaine
someonewho for four onths has been called away from his home and family and forced
to spend New Year’s and Christmas in a barracks.” The resident adds that “yes,
there are various kinds of people in the police ... but that’s to be expected
as the police are a slice of society and as society is, soo too is the police.
Let’s be kind to one another” (privetsochi.ru/blog/sochi2014/40182.html).
May Sochi
Residents Suffer as Little as Possible During the Games. According to a man with relatives in Sochi,
residents there are having a hard time.
“Undoubtedly, not everything [in Sochi] is bad. A great deal good and necessary has been
done,” he says, but only at a high cost to the residents of “the Olympic
reservation.” He adds that he “wants to
wish all of them the ability to survive
[the Olympics] and not lose their sense of humor ... In comparison with the years
of Olympic insanity behind them, [the time ahead] is a small thing indeed. But
they have to be lived through a well” (privetsochi.ru/blog/sochi2014/40130.html).
Public Protest
Prompts Sochi Authorities to Cart Away One Trash Heap. Sochi residents have long been infuriated by
the willingness of Olympic contractors to ignore the law and dump trash
wherever they like. Over the past six months, there have been more protests
about this than about almost any other issue. Now, for almost the first time,
Sochi residents can claim a small victory: Officials have responded and carted
away one trash heap, although they have done nothing about the many other and
some suspect that contractors will again dump their construction waste in the
same spot that has been cleared (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236103/).
More Bad Weather
Threatens Sochi’s Power Lines.
High winds and cold weather in the coming days is likely to harm Sochi’s
electricity network, according to city officials. In addition, it is likely to
slow construction as well (http://sochiadm.ru/press-sluzhba/25331/).
German Skier Say
Russia Should Never Have Been Awarded the Games. German skier Felix Neureuther says that
“Russia should not have been chosen as the host of the 2014 Winter Olympics
because of its poor human rights record,” according to GaystarNews. “It's not right,” he said after winning a World Cup
slalom competition in Italy. “The guys from the IOC should think about where to
put the Olympic Games. It's not right to give the Olympic Games to places where
they are giving the most money. It should be about the sport, in nations where
there is passion” (gaystarnews.com/article/german-skier-felix-neureuther-latest-criticize-russian-gay-propaganda-ban070114).
Circassians
Release Two Feature Films about Genocide in Advance of Sochi. Circassians in the United States and Turkey
have produced two full-length feature films about the history of their nation,
including the genocide their ancestors suffered at the hands of the Russian
military in Sochi in 1864. In addition, they have stepped up their campaign to
call attention to the disrespect that holding the Olympiad on the site of mass
graves represents (pdl.vimeocdn.com/72817/595/197982263.mp4?token=1389121906_b5d30feb3c599157fabc7bdb101021a0 and youtube.com/watch?v=4CYb-Y01GqM&feature=youtube_gdata_player).
Circassian Says
World Leaders Should Not Go to Sochi Because of Genocide. Abubekir Murzakanov, the president of
the Adyge Khekuh Circassian National Movement, has issued a public appeal to
the leaders of the world calling on them to refuse to go to Sochi because of
the genocide that Russians committed there against the Circassians in 1864.
Genocide, he notes, is “a crime against humanity” far more serious than any
other form of discrimination (facebook.com/groups/antisochi/permalink/652228411486573/).
Circassians
Angry about Russian Failure to Acknowledge Their History in Sochi. Circassian activists in the North Caucasus
and the diaspora say Russian organizers have almost completely ignored the
history of the Circassian nation in Sochi, despite simple justice and the
requirements of the Olympic Charter. Some say that organizers have devoted far
less than one percent of their propaganda about the cultural background of the
region to the Circassians whose capital Sochi once was (facebook.com/naima.neflyasheva?hc_location=timeline, January 3).
Russian
Journalist Implicitly Recognizes Circassian Genocide. Russian journalist Yuliya Latynina’s
statement that “Russians are genetically predisposed ot genocide” represents an
implicit recognition of the genocide Russians conducted against the Circassians
in 1864, according to Murat Pshikanov, a Circassian activist (www.facebook.com/pshikanov).
Western
Headlines about Olympiad Increasingly Critical. Headlines like “Are Olympic Visitors Walking
iinto a War Zone” and “The Sochi Olympics – the Next Benghazi” reflect
increasing criticism in the West of the Sochi Olympiad and especially the
security environment of that North Caucasus venue. Such headlines are likely to
reduce the number of people likely to travel to the games and may affect how
Western governments will react to what is taking place there (news.uk.msn.com/comment-and-analysis/sochi-2014-are-olympic-visitors-walking-into-a-war-zone and video.foxnews.com/v/3019364355001/sochi-olympics-the-next-benghazi/#sp=show-clips).
Bomb Scare
Empties Sochi Shopping Mall. When a package labeled “bomb” was found
in Sochi’s Sea Mall, the authorities ordered an evacuation, but they determined
that the supposed bomb was a fake. No charges against anyone have yet been
filed. This event, however, did have the effect of increasing public fears in
Sochi and leading many residents to celebrate the New Year’s either at home or
outside other enclosed spaces (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236183/, newsru.com/russia/03jan2014/sochi.html and blogsochi.ru/content/srochnaya-evakuatsiya-iz-trts-moremoll).
Will New
Security Rules Allow Russian Postal Workers to Steal More? The
introduction of a requirement that all packages addressed to Krasnodar kray
during the Olympic period be opened by postal authorities is likely to lead to
more theft by employees of that agency.
According to some Russian residents, Russian Post is “a branch of the
Bermuda triangle on the territory of Russia,” and the new rules will only make
that black hole larger (privetsochi.ru/blog/sochi2014/40029.html).
Will
Sochi Become St. Vladimirsburg or VladCity? American analyst John Brown argues that just
as St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin’s native city, was built “in part to be a
bulwark against the Swedes int eh 18th century, Sochi can be seen as
a possibly misguided realpolitik ‘defense’ against separatism in the Caucasus,”
a challenge htat “could spark the flame of the dissolution of the Russian
Federaiton.” Given those parallels, he
says, Russian officials might well consider renaming Sochi St. Vladimirsburg or
VladCity (huffingtonpost.com/john-brown/sochi-vladimirsburg_b_4550761.html).
Sochi Leads
Russia in Exploitation of Workers, Labor Activists Say. The mistreatment of workers, including abuses
like non-payment of wages earned, in recent months has been worse in Sochi than
anywhere else in the Russian Federation, according to labor activists. And despite suggestions to the contrary,
Central Asian gastarbeiters have not been the only victims. Many Russian workers have also been
mistreated, and the complaints of both have beenignored by corporations and
officials (south-worker.com/obman-rabochix-na-olimpijskix-strojkax-v-sochi-stal-sistemoj/).
Krasnodar
Officials Said Keeping Out Residents of Daghestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia. Kaoly Akhilgov
a lawyer and activist, says that Krasnodar kray officials have begun to prevent
residents of Daghestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia, three unstable regions in the
North Caucasus, from entering that region without special permission and say
they will continue to do so until the Olympics are over. He also says that Ingush
officials are advising residents not to travel to Krasnodar without the
approval of their own government (habar.org/?p=27432 and kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236361/).
Manezh
Demonstrators Unfurl “No Sochi” Sign at Moscow Demonstration. A Moscow protest in support of those arrested
for the May 6 demonstration I the Russian capital included a banner with the
slogan “No to the Olympiad.” Police arrested 28 of those taking part (echo.msk.ru/blog/photo_nikita/1233088-echo/ and grani.ru/Politics/Russia/activism/m.223143.html).
Old Believers’
Cemetery Survives in Sochi Olympic Complex.
Although Russian officials have never expressed concern that Olympic
construction may disturb the graves of thousands of Circassians who died in
Sochi and environs in 1864, they thankfully have not destroyed an Old
Believers’ Cemetery that is now surrounded by Olympic venues but remains intact
(ru-nsn.livejournal.com/3997626.html).
Sewage Leaks in
Sochi Too Widespread and Serious for Local Officials to Correct. Local officials have turned to Moscow for
help in blocking the leaks in Sochi’s sewage system that continue to cause
smells and spark complaints from local residents. According to officials, there
has not been any serious effort to upgrade the sewage sytem since the end of
the Soviet Union (http://www.kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236226/).
Old Sochi Sign
Says ‘Rossiisky;’ New One Says ‘Russky.’
A non-Russian has called attention to the fact that the original sign
for Sochi’s Japanese garden uses the word “rossiisky,” which is a political
rather than ethnic term for Russians, while the new sign put up by Olympic
organizers uses the term “russky” which is an ethnic rather than political one.
“So are we non-ethnic Russians or ethnic ones?!
I had thought we had a multi-national country!” (vk.com/blogsochi_ru?w=wall-5042747_41462).
Putin and
Lukashenka Play Ice Hockey at Sochi Venue.
Russian President Vladimir Putin teamed up with his Belarusian
counterpart, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, to play ice hockey against a group of
Russian all-stars. Putin and Lukashenka were in red; the all-stars, in white (blogsochi.ru/content/putin-i-lukashenko-sygrali-v-khokkei-v-sochi).
Moscow Made
Promises about Sochi But Things Turned Out Like Always, Blogger Says. According to Sochi blogger Valeriy
Suchkov, Moscow pledged to liveup to the principles of the Olympic Charter and
promote “the harmonious development” of the city, “but in the execution of [the
Russian] bureaucrac, any good deed is transformed into its opposite.” So far, the Russian bureaucracy has violated
the rights of the city’s residents, destroyed their city, and deprived them of the right to run their
own affairs” (blogsochi.ru/content/sochi-demonstratsiya-styda).
Krasnoyarsk
Procuracy Opens Hotline for Reports of Rights Abuses. The procuracy of Krasoyarsk kray has set up a
hotline for residents and visitors to report abuses of civil and human rights
during the Olympics and Paralympics (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236261/
Sochi Blogger
Detained for Writing Down Police Names and ID Numbers. Police in Sochi
detained Aleksey Kuzmin, a Sochi blogger, for writing down the names and
identification numbers of some of their colleagues. They did so even before the imposition of new
stricter security rules on January 7 when in Kuzmin’s words, they were given
“carte blanche” to harass everyone and anyone in the region (grani.ru/tags/sochi/m.223126.html).
Moscow
has Allowed Most Facilities from 1980 Olympiad to Decay. Given that
Moscow has repeatedly insisted that the facilities it has built in Sochi for
the Olympiad will be maintained and used for decades to come, several Russians
decided to visit the facilities that Moscow built for the 1980 games and see
what has happened to those. Their
photographs which have been posted on the Internet reveal “a sad picture” of
neglect, disuse and decay and suggest that whatever the Russian authorities
say, the situation in Sochi a decade from now will be equally “sad” (skif-tag.livejournal.com/1092874.html).
US Olympians
Worried about Security at Sochi. In the wake of the Volgograd bombings,
US speedskater Tucker Fredericks says
that he is “just going to stay in the bubble ... go to the oval,and go back to
my room. And that’s it.” His teammate Jilleanne Rookard says she hopes that
Russia’s desire to avoid “national embarrassment” will provide some protection
but told the Associated Press that
she is worried about the likelihood that spectators will not hav similar
protection. “We worry about our parents,
our family, our friends. They’re going to be normal tourists. I’m scared for
them” (newsday.com/putin-s-games-could-still-be-compliment-or-curse-1.6734852).
Russian Athletes
‘Trying to Figure Out’ How Best to Use Sochi’s Four Kinds of Snow. Aleksandr Schastnkh, a Russian Olympic skier,
says he and his colleagues are studying the four different kinds of snow that
will be on the runs in Sochi – incuding 16 million cubic feet of snow saved
from last year – so as to have “maximum acceleration” and give Russian athletes
the best chance at the games (rt.com/news/sochi-olympic-games-snow-187/).
Moscow Spending
520 Million US Dollars per Event at Sochi, Four Times as Much as Beijing Did. Sports exports
say that the two best measures of the cost of the Sochi Olympiad are the one
that indicates that the Russian government is spending on average 520 million
US dollars on each event, four times as much as the Chinese government did and
the other that shows that there has been a cost overrun of 500 percent in the
Russian case, almost three times as much as the Olympic average of 180
percent. Such figures compensate, as
some others do not, for changes in the number of sports represented in the
competitions (deadspin.com/how-the-sochi-olympics-became-a-51-billion-quagmire-1493890966).
Islamist
Hacker Group Threatens a Cyber War Against Sochi Games. Anonymous Caucasus, a radical Islamist hacker
group that has already broken into the sites of Sberbank and the Bank of
Russia, says it will launch a cyber attack on Sochi as part of a broader
“Pay-Back for Sochi” campaign to disrupt the competition (backpagelead.com.au/index.php/olympics/11944-the-trouble-with-putins-five-ringed-circus).
LGBT Group Urges
German Olympians to Identify Themselves as Members of Sexual Minorities. The Union of Lesbians
and Gays of Germany has appealed to members of the German Olympic team to
declare themselves to be members of sexual minorities as a way of protesting
Moscow’s anti-gay laws and policies (vz.ru/news/2014/1/5/666879.html).
Overstretched,
Moscow Using Military for Police Work in North Caucasus. To
cope with security challenges that have stretched its police resources to the
limit, the Russian government is now using uniformed soldiers as police in
Stavropol kray (kavkaz-uzel.ru/articles/236172/ as discussed in windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2014/01/window-on-eurasia-overstretched-and.html).
Putin’s Constant
Visits to Sochi Part of His Effort to Create ‘Simulacrum of a Big Russia.’ Citing Ilf and Petrov’s observation that
“parallel to the big worl in which live big people and big things there exists
a small world with small people and small things,” commentator Ilya
Konstantinov says that President Vladimir Putin’s constant visits to Sochi,
visits that are not strictly necessary given that other officials could condct
such inspections, are part of the Russian president’s efforts to create “a
simulacrum of a Great Russia” (svpressa.ru/blogs/article/80094/).
Snow Leopard,
Symbol of Sochi Games, Near Extinction in Russia Because of Poaching. President
Vladimir Putin says that the Russian people chose the snow leopard as the
mascot for the Sochi Games because it is “strong, powerful, fast and
beautiful,” but experts say that there are probably only about 40 of them
living in Russia where they have been pushed toward extinction by poachers who
sell their skins for 20-30,000 US dollars” in Moscow and Beijing (pri.org/stories/2014-01-02/snow-leopard-sochi-olympics-symbol-near-extinction).
Sochi City
Government Alienating Small Business. Despite the fact that small businesses
provide 50 percent of the jobs and half of the income of the city, the Sochi
city government under Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov has failed to support them,
members of the business community say. Worse, he has taken steps that give all
the advantages to big firms in advance of the Olympiad. As a result, some small businessmen say, they
want him to leave office as soon as possible and are totally alienated from the
Olympic effort. One said that “even if [he] were in Sochi during the
Olympiad, [he] would watch it only on television” rather than attend any of the
competitions (arch-sochi.ru/2012/05/musornaya-politika-sochi-provalena/ and sochinskie-novosti.com/).
Cartoonists Having
Field Day with Sochi Games. At the date of
the start of the Olympiad approaches, cartoonists both in the Russian
Federation and abroad are increasingly focusing on Sochi and in a highly
critical manner. For some examples, see the
collection of cariacatures at blogsochi.ru/content/karikatury-narisovannye-k-olimpiade-v-sochi and also th
cartoon aat facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=557960370961898&set=a.200485616709377.46743.156326144458658&type=3&theater).
After Olympiad,
Sochi to Be Left With Bills It Can’t Pay and Facilities It Can’t Support. Even as many Sochi residents say they will be
glad when the Olympiad is over, officials and analysts are pointing to the fact
that Sochi faces a horrible future after that: enormous investment requirements
in infrastructure like water, electricity and sewer lines which haven’t been
fully updated despite the games and which broke down more than 1,000 times last
year, the end of tax revenues from Olympic construction firms that will be
departing, rapidly falling real estate values and tax revenues, the likelihood
of numerous bankruptcies and the tearing down of hotels and other buildings
constructed for the Olympics, and the city’s limited ability to expand given
its location. As a result, many have
concluded that Sochi will decay and relatively rapidly unless it can somehow
attract a continuing flow of major international events and competitions to
attract outside investment, a flow Russian President Vladimir Putin has pledged
to promote but may not be able to sustain (svpressa.ru/society/article/80205/ and /ru.znatock.com/docs/index-38991.html).
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