(The Canadian Press) Georgia has asked the International OlympicCommittee to move the 2014 Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia, citingsecurity reasons.
IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau confirmed inan e-mail Wednesday that the IOC had received a letter from theGeorgian national Olympic committee seeking relocation of the Games.
She said she had no other immediate details or comment.
"It(Sochi) is a very dangerous place," Ramaz Goglidze, firstvice-president of the Georgian committee, was quoted as saying on theAround the Rings website.
He and Giya Natsvlishvili, newlyelected president of the Georgian committee, are scheduled to attendthe general assembly of the European Olympic committees in Istanbul,Turkey, on Friday and Saturday. They could raise the Sochi issue there.
"Weare not boycotting Sochi Olympic Games. We ask IOC to shift OlympicGames to safer place," Natsvlishvili was quoted as saying on anAzerbaijani website.
Russia and Georgia fought a war in August.More than 160,000 people fled fighting that broke out Aug. 7 whenGeorgian forces launched an attack to regain control of South Ossetia.Russian forces repelled the attack, drove deep into Georgia, and stayedthere for weeks.
Russia still has thousands of troops in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, and has recognized both as independent nations.
Sochi,a Black Sea resort, was awarded the Olympics last year, defeating bidsfrom Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeonchang, South Korea. Sochi organizershave to build most of the venues from scratch.
DmitryChernyshenko, president of the Sochi organizing committee, told TheAssociated Press last week that preparations remained on track despitethe global economic downturn.
"This is really project No. 1 in the country," he said.
Salzburg, meanwhile, has offered to step in to host the Games if Sochi is incapable of doing so.
"Ifthe IOC needs us and also pays us a fair share of those very goodOlympic Game revenues, I'm in," Salzburg Governor Gabi Burgstaller saidin an interview Wednesday with the Austrian newspaper Wirtschaftsblatt.
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