Window on Eurasia: Sochi Countdown -- 35 Weeks to the Olympiad in the North Caucasus
Note: This is my 15th 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 Only One Who Can’t See the Risks Sochi Represents, Delyagin Says. Vladimir Putin has treated Sochi as his very own "triumph of the will” and consequently cannot see the risks that this competition presents for him even if in the unlikely event everything goes well, according to Moscow commentator Mikhail Delyagin. That is because the run-up to the games has already cast a harsh light on his irresponsible and corrupt rule and generated expanded criticism of the Russian president both at home and abroad (svpressa.ru/society/article/68699/).
Khrushchev Promised Communism, But Putin ‘Can’t Think Up Anything Besides Sochi.’ A new political cartoon by Elkin has Stalin saying that ‘life is becoming happier’ and Khrushchev promising ‘communism before 1980.’ But Vladimir Putin, Elkin suggests, "cannot think up anything besides the Sochi Olympiad” (polit.ru/gallery/elkin/).
Satirical Sochi Posters at Perm Art Show Anger Moscow. A collection of satirical posters displayed at a Perm art exhibit showing Stalin hiding behind the mask of Mishka, the Olympic symbol, and the Sochi Olympics as a grenade rather than a matryoshka doll, has attracted the attention of Moscow officials who are demanding that the posters be taken down and that the officials responsible be held accountable (znak.com/print.php?news_id=1006790).
WWF Says Olympic Construction has Ruined River Supplying Drinking Water to Sochi. The World Wildlife Fund has added the Mzymta River in Sochi to its list of ten ecologically at risk places in Russia. That river, which supplies drinking water to Sochi, has been contaminated as a result of Olympic construction and will require many years to recover (blogsochi.ru/content/po-mneniyu-wwf-reka-mzymta-teryaet-ekologicheskuyu-tsennost).
Sochi Organizers Say They’re ‘Studying’ Nemtsov’s Charges about Games. Aleksandr Zhukov, the president of the Russian Olympic Committee, says that he "needs time to analyze the statistics” Boris Nemtsov offers in his recent pamphlet, "The Winter Olympics in the Subtropics,” but that Moscow is sure that its accounting chamber has prevented the kind of corruption that the opposition figure documents (kavkasia.net/Russia/2013/1370032390.php).
Power Shortages Interrupt Showings at Sochi Film Festival. Electric power outages, a daily occurrence in Sochi for many months, have attracted more attention now that they have occurred during a high-profile film festival there and led more people to question whether the power grid will be ready to support the Sochi Olympiad next year (blogsochi.ru/content/kina-ne-budet-%E2%80%93-elektrichestvo-konchilos).
US Sports Writer Says Chaos and Corruption Will Keep Him from Going to Sochi.David Williams, a Vail, Colorado, sports writer says that "corruption, construction chaos, likely coastal weather concerns, and potential for security mayhem” will keep him from attending the first Winter Olympics he’s missed since 1994 and that the IOC should recognize that it has made a mistake in giving the winter competition to Sochi, "a Black Sea resort with more palm trees than pine trees” (www.realvail.com/blog/1836/Why-I-wont-be-in-Sochi-in-2014).
Anti-Circassian Commentaries Continue to Increase in Russian Media. Russian writers continue to expand their attacks on Georgia and Western countries who have raised questions about holding an Olympic competition on the site of the 1864 genocide of the Circassian nation or even called for Moscow to include references to the plight of the Circassians in its Olympic arrangements (bs-kavkaz.org/2013/06/novejshie-cherty-cherkesskogo-voprosa-v-informacionnoj-vojne-protiv-rossii/).
Moscow Won’t Let Syrian Circassians Return Lest Turkish Circassians Do So. Russia’s regional development ministry says that Circassians living in wartorn Syria should not be allowed to return, apparently fearful that if they do, members of the far larger Circassian diaspora in Turkey will also seek to come back to the North Caucasus, an influx that could transform the ethnic mix in the western North Caucasus in advance of the Sochi Games (izvestia.ru/news/551173 and svpressa.ru/t/68823/).
FSB Brings Charges Against Sochi Resident for Online Posts. A criminal case has been lodged against a Sochi woman who has posted stories on her Vkontakte page that the FSB says promote inter-ethnic hatred, an indication that Moscow’s recent moves against the Internet are taking their most extreme form in the region where the Olympiad will be held (kuban.sledcom.ru/news/detail.php?news=55061).
Russian Officials Raid Sochi Sites with Illegal Gastarbeiters. Paralleling developments elsewhere in the Russian Federation, Sochi and regional police have raided Olympic construction sites in an effort to identify and then expel locally unpopular gastarbeiters. But residents say it is unclear whether these raids are effective or only a sop to public opinion (blogsochi.ru/content/migratsionnuyu-politiku-obsudili-na-selektornom-soveshchanii-s-aleksandrom-tkachevym).
Average Bill at a Sochi Café Now Exceeds 1300 Rubles … Prices at restaurants and cafes in Sochi are rising to levels beyond the means of most Russians, with the average bill at a café there now exceeding 1300 rubles or 40 US dollars. Meanwhile, articles are appearing in the Russian regional press suggesting that the cost of travelling to Sochi during the games will make that impossible for their audiences (blogsochi.ru/content/%C2%ABnovyi-povorot%C2%BB-sochinskogo-gostepriimstva and www.amic.ru/news/220579/).
… And General Price Rises Make Sochi Olympiad an Event Only for the Rich.Moscow’s "Sovershenno Sekretno” magazine has documented the dramatic price rises in all sectors in Sochi and suggests that the Sochi Games as a result will be welcoming only to the rich, arguing that Moscow’s use of the JetSet Sports group has exacerbated this problem (www.sovsekretno.ru/articles/id/3605/).
Some Olympic Construction Now Going Forward Around the Clock. In the hopes of completing highway and other construction projects in and around Sochi, some contractors are now working through the night and weekends, something that allows them to move equipment around at times when there are fewer vehicles on the roads but that disturbs local residents and visitors to the city now (blogsochi.ru/content/rosavtodor-preobrazhaet-kurortnyi-prospekt).
Sochi Officials Deny Local People a Venue to Discuss Their Problems. After promising a hall to local residents who wanted to discuss the problems Olympic preparations have created, Sochi city officials cancelled the offer at the last minute forcing the organizers to try to find an alternative venue (blogsochi.ru/content/administratsiya-khostinskogo-raiona-zabrala-aktovyi-zal).
Putin Compares Olympic Torch to Kalashnikov Rifle; Others Say It Looks Like Vodka Ad. Russian President Vladimir Putin says that the Sochi Olympic torch reminds him of Russia’s famed Kalashnikov rifle, but others say that it looks like the letter "R” in a Russian vodka advertisement (fakty.ictv.ua/ru/index/read-news/id/1477923).
Sochi Olympic Tickets Don’t Yet Specify Seat Locations. Russian officials say that Russians will purchase "about 70 percent” of all tickets for the games, but they acknowledge that the tickets now on offer do not specify where those purchasing them will in fact sit, thus limiting the attraction of any early purchases (interfax.ru/sport/news.asp?id=309635 andkp.ru/online/news/1452433/).
Soviet-Style Student Work Brigades Come to Sochi from Across Russia. Student work brigades are being dispatched from various parts of the Russian Federation to help complete construction projects in Sochi, a trend that recalls Moscow’s approach in Soviet times (ruwest.ru/news/4443/).
Kozak, Predicting Success at Sochi, Says St. Petersburg May Seek 2024 Summer Games. Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister who is overseeing the Sochi games, says that they will be successful and says that officials are discussing whether St. Petersburg should seek to get the 2024 Summer Games. If the IOC agreed, Moscow would have organized a winter Olympics in the southern part of Russia and a summer competition in the north (itar-tass.com/c20/754498.html).
Chechen Workers in Sochi Claim Discrimination, Point to Disorder in Sochi. Chechen workers at Sochi Olympics construction sites say they have not been paid, that the supply of building materials is inadequate, and that there is no effective supervision of what is going on there (rferl.org/media/video/24998602.html). Meanwhile, conflicts between Vietnamese gastarbeiters and local people have broken out nearby (natpress.ru/index.php?newsid=8273).
Russian Officials Continue to Deny Shapsugs Official Recognition. Russian officials continue to refuse to grant official recognition to the Shapsugs, a sub-group of Circassians whose homeland includes Sochi. Despite that, Shapsug leaders say they welcome the Sochi Games because development has improved the lives of many of them and because the competition gives them a chance to present themselves and their problems, including the 1864 genocide, to the world (hekupsa.com/cherkesiya/obzor/912-olimpiada-i-shapsugi).
Moscow Moves Against North Caucasus Officials. In an indication that the situation in the North Caucasus may be even more explosive than many now think, Moscow has removed several powerful officials in Daghestan and elsewhere despite the risk that this may spark a new wave of instability there in advance of the Sochi Games (slon.ru/russia/khirurgicheskaya_operatsiya_i_ee_posledstviya-949069.xhtml andrbcdaily.ru/society/562949987198827).
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