CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING THE WINTER OLYMPICS 2014 Sochi 2014

CONTROVERSIES SURROUNDING THE WINTER OLYMPICS 2014 Sochi 2014

INTRODUCTION • Sochi was elected to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in 2007, beating rival candidates Pyeongchang in South Korea and Salzburg in Austria. • Sochi is Russia’s largest resort city and is located on the coast of the Black Sea, about 40 km from the Caucasus. • It is one of the few places in Russia with a sub-tropical climate. Summers are hot and winters are mild.

ENVIRONMENT • Environmental experts have warned the Russian government about the potential damage constructing Olympics venues within the area of UNESCO protected nature reserves / World Heritage sites. • Geologist Dr. Volkov states that mercury and uranium deposits, as well as the probability of landslides, make the location of the games hazardous. • Recently, it emerged that Russia's state-owned rail monopoly is carelessly dumping tons of construction waste into illegal landfills, raising concerns of possible contamination in the water that directly supplies Sochi.

OVERSPENDING The games in Sochi cost more than $50 billion, a price tag higher than the last 21 Winter Games combined and more expensive than any Summer Games ever held. The rail-and-motorway network linking resort towns to the mountainous region where snowboard and ski events took place cost $8. 7 billion, making it more expensive than the total cost of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games. The Russian state spent three times more on the road than NASA did for the delivery and operation of a new generation of Mars rovers. Poor working conditions and workers’ rights are major issues of concern, with at least 25 people dying and many more injured in accidents on sites in 2012 alone.

CORRUPTION • While most Olympic Games have a degree of overspending, for these Games they were much higher than usual. Much of the cost overruns were blamed on corruption. • According to 2013 poll, two-thirds of population were convinced that much of the money allocated for Sochi was either misused or “simply stolen. ” • Boris Nemtsov, opposition politician and former prime minister, claims that up to $30 billion of the bill consists of embezzlement and kickbacks.

LGBT RIGHTS Six months before Russia hosted the Games, Putin signed a law allowing police officers to arrest tourists and foreign nationals they suspected of being homosexual, lesbian or “pro-gay” and detain them for up to 14 days. The law could mean that any Olympic athlete, trainer, reporter, family member or fan who is gay — or suspected of being gay, or just accused of being gay — could go to jail. The government also banned the dissemination of “propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations” near children – making it almost impossible for gay activists to operate openly. Intentional “gay propaganda” can include something as simple as telling a child that homosexuality is normal. Pride parades were besieged by violent attacks that went unchecked (or were outright encouraged) by the police. Around the same time, Putin signed another law prohibiting gay and lesbian couples in foreign countries from adopting Russian children.

CIRCASSIANS The region around Sochi’s indigenous people, the Circassians, are mostly Muslim and have resided there for thousands of years. In the 19 th century, an expanding Russian Empire coveted their territory – which is south and east of Russia proper – and used overwhelming force to defeat them. Russia killed around 1. 5 million Circassians and expelled around 1. 5 million more, mostly to the Ottoman Empire, with many dying of famine and disease. Entire tribes were decimated; for example, the Shapsugh tribe was reduced from 300, 000 to 3, 000 people. The bloodiest battle of all, which Circassians refer to as their "last stand, " occurred in the vicinity of Sochi, their capital, in 1864. The Circassians describe the catastrophe that befell their people as the first modern genocide. Circassians have faced huge challenges in attempting to preserve their identity and traditions and keep the memory of their homeland alive.

CIRCASSIANS When it was announced that Sochi would host the 2014 Winter Olympics, there was an outcry among Circassians, who were profoundly insulted that the games would be staged on the graves of their ancestors, almost exactly 150 years after the Sochi “last stand. ” When Putin delivered his bid for the games in a speech to the International Olympic Committee in 2007, he said that the Sochi area used to be inhabited by ancient Greeks and did not mention the Circassians. This is noteworthy because not only did the Circassians live in the region at the time of the Greeks and maintain close ties with them, but they actually participated in the original Olympic games. Russia's indifference towards its indigenous people sharply contrasts with Canada's policy at the last Winter Olympics in Vancouver in 2010. The governments of Canada and British Columbia contributed millions of dollars to centres that educated visitors about indigenous culture and history.

POLITICAL STABILITY Suicide bombers on Dec. 29 and Dec. 30, 2013 killed more than 30 people at a train station and on a trolley in the southern Russian city of Volgograd, 700 kilometres north of Sochi. In October 2013, six people died in a bombing on a bus in Volgograd. The attacks in Volgograd, as well as a suicide bombing at a Moscow airport in 2011, have underscored weaknesses in standard security measures at public transport hubs. The neighbouring North Caucasus region is home to militant separatists who for years have waged a war of independence against Russia, as well as radical Islamist groups.

POLITICAL STABILITY The Russians have grown more and more concerned over the threat, but are also concerned over the perception of insecurity, and therefore have not wanted to allow the United States and other countries’ security services in on the ground to assist. The Games have long been a high-profile target for terrorists. At the 1972 Summer Games in Munich, 11 Israeli athletes were taken hostage and killed by a Palestinian terrorist group. In 1996, American Eric Rudolph detonated a bomb at Centennial Olympic Park during the Summer Games in Atlanta. The U. S. ski and snowboard team hired a private security firm to have as many as five aircraft on standby in case team members needed to evacuate Sochi quickly.