Dee Finney's blog

start date July 20, 2011

today's date January 15,  2014

page 632

TOPIC:  OLYMPICS IN RUSSIA - 2014

Sochi organizers say three hotels not ready for media

With less than a week remaining before the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Russian Olympic officials have admitted that only six of the nine media hotels in the area are fully operational. 

With thousands of journalists expected to pour into the Black Sea resort in the days leading up to the opening of the games Friday, the International Olympic Committee is urging organizers to move quickly to resolve the issue. Some media have already arrived in Sochi and found themselves with no place to stay. 

"There are still some issues to be solved as always just before the games," IOC President Thomas Bach said. "We are in contact with the organizing committee and we hope that the situation will be solved in the next couple of days."

The matter was being examined Sunday at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee executive board.

The Russian government has spent $51 billion on the Olympics in the hopes of turning the Black Sea summer resort into a year-round tourism destination.

While pre-games attention has focused on cost overruns, threats of terrorist attacks and the Russian law banning gay "propaganda" among minors, the hotel situation could become an embarrassment for local organizers.

Organizers estimate that up to 6,000 media will be arriving in Sochi on Monday. About 11,000 media overall are expected to be covering Russia's first Winter Games.

IOC vice president John Coates of Australia said he was expecting an update on the situation from Sochi organizers at Sunday's meeting.

"It's obviously very important," he said.

IOC press commission chairman Kevan Gosper took the issue to the executive board and was working with Gilbert Felli, the executive director of the Olympic Games, in discussions with Sochi organizers.

"We've alerted them that a lot of people are coming in and particularly of the difficulty still in the mountains," Gosper said. "They are aware it's a serious issue."

Gosper said servicing of the hotels was now the major problem.

"The accommodation is there, but serving the accommodation is the challenge," he said.

Organizers said in a statement Saturday that media who arrive to find an incomplete room will be given new accommodation, some with an upgrade.

"Within the three remaining hotels, the rooms are currently going through the final testing process and check of their services," the organizing committee said. "At the end of the testing process guests will then be accommodated in the hotels they initially booked."

Bach, meanwhile, praised Sochi's overall readiness for the games, which open on Friday.

"Things are going very well," he said. "I had a good opportunity yesterday to visit the Olympic Village and to speak with a lot of athletes and they were all very happy and excited about the conditions in the Olympic village.

"The sports facilities are ready. The stage is set for the best winter athletes of the world, and we are very confident that we will have excellent games."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Sochi Forces Search For 3 Potential Olympic Suicide Bombers

SOCHI, Russia (AP) — Russian security officials are hunting down three potential female suicide bombers, one of whom is believed to be in Sochi, where the Winter Olympics will begin next month.

Police leaflets seen by an Associated Press reporter at a central Sochi hotel on Tuesday contain warnings about three potential suicide bombers. A police letter said that one of them, Ruzanna Ibragimova, a 22-year-old widow of an Islamic militant, was at large in Sochi.

Russian authorities have blamed the so-called "black widows" of slain insurgents for previous suicide attacks in the country.

Security officials in Sochi were not available for comment on Tuesday. The Black Sea resort town will host the games in February amid concerns about security and potential terrorist attacks.

The southern city of Volgograd was rocked by two suicide bombings in late December, which killed 34 and injures scores more. An Islamic militant group in Dagestan on Monday posted a video claiming responsibility for the bombings and threatened to strike the games in Sochi, about 500 kilometers (300 miles) west of Dagestan.

Police material distributed to the hotel staff also included pictures of two other women in veils: 26-year-old Zaira Aliyeva and 34-year-old Dzhannet Tsakhayeva. It said they had been trained "to perpetrate acts of terrorism."

It warned that the two women "are probably among us," but, unlike Ibragimova's case, did not say if they are in Sochi.

The Olympics are to be held Feb. 7-23. Russia has mounted an intense security operation in the city, but concern persists that "soft targets" outside the Olympic venues, such as buses and tourist facilities, are vulnerable to attack.

Russian security forces battle militants before Olympics

Olympic rings for the 2014 Winter Olympics are installed in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, southern Russia, late Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2012. With the Winter Olympics a year away, IOC President Jacques Rogge praised Sochi organizers on Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 and defended the $51 billion price tag. (AP Photo/Ignat Kozlov))

(Reuters) - Three Russian servicemen and four gunmen were killed in a shootout in southern Russia on Wednesday during a sweep for militants before the Sochi Winter Olympics.

Russia's National Anti-terrorism Committee (NAC) said the dead gunmen included a man accused of carrying out a car bomb attack in the city of Pyatigorsk late last year which killed three people.

Russia in on high alert following two suicide bombings in southern Russia last month that fuelled security concerns before the Olympics, which Islamist militants waging an insurgency in the North Caucasus have threatened to attack.

President Vladimir Putin has staked a lot of personal and political prestige on the success of the Games, which open on February 7, and has put security forces on combat alert in Sochi.

The NAC said in a statement that a group of militants had been trapped in a house in the village of Karlanyurt in the Dagestan region of the North Caucasus. Five officers were also wounded in what a spokesman called a special operation.

Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, is about 620 km (385 miles) east of Sochi. The mostly Muslim region is plagued by bombings and shootings that mainly target police and state officials as part of the militants' fight to create an Islamist state.

At least 34 people were killed last month in the suicide bombings in the southern city of Volgograd. Putin ordered safety measures to be beefed up nationwide after the attacks.

About 37,000 personnel are now in place to provide security in Sochi, which is on the Black Sea and on the western edge of the Caucasus mountains, and the International Olympic Committee has expressed confidence the Games will be safe.

But, underlining the danger of attacks, security forces said on Saturday they had arrested five members of a banned militant group in southern Russia and defused a homemade bomb packed with shrapnel.

The main spokesman for Russia's Investigative Committee, whose responsibilities include looking into bombings and other attacks, appealed to civilians on Tuesday to be more vigilant and help avert the threat of "terrorist" attacks.