Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Russia

Olympic Inspectors Tour Sochi

Russian President Putin speaking to the IOC delegation in Sochi today (epa)

February 20, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- An International Olympic Committee inspection team has toured Sochi to evaluate the city's bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

TEXT SIZE - +

February 20, 2007

The inspectors met local and federal officials and are due to meet President Vladimir Putin.

Russia -- which has never hosted the Winter Games -- has committed nearly $12 billion to upgrade the area's infrastructure.

But Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund oppose plans to build ski slopes and sports complexes in the Sochi National Park and Caucasus Nature Reserve.

The government and environmental groups have agreed to form a board of ecologists to oversee development plans.

Economic Development and Trade Minister German Gref pledged that Russia will make ecological concerns a priority.

Sochi is competing against Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea, to host the games.

The IOC is scheduled to select the host city on July 4.

(with material from agency reports)

Syrians in the northwestern town of Kfar Nubul pose with a cartoon depicting Russia

Angry Over Syria, Arab World Threatens Russian Boycott

Groups in a number of Arab states, angry over the Russian-Chinese veto of a UN resolution aimed at stopping the violence in Syria, have called for a one-day boycott of Russian and Chinese goods on February 12. More

Alla Dzhioyeva attends a protest by her supporters in Tskhinvali on January 28.

South Ossetian Opposition Leader Hospitalized After Raid

Alla Dzhioyeva, the opposition candidate whose victory in a runoff ballot in November for de facto president of Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia was swiftly annulled by the republic's Supreme Court, was taken to a hospital after a raid by some 200 masked security personnel on her headquarters in Tskhinvali. More

Protesters gather behind a banner reading "Honest Elections" during a demonstration in Moscow on February 4.

How To Rig An Election

A whistle-blower in Samara explains how the authorities fixed the Duma elections in December -- and plan to do the same in the presidential vote in March. More