ATR In The News: Georgia calls on IOC to move Sochi Olympics

Georgia calls on IOC to move Sochi Olympics

Georgia has asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move the2014 Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia, for security reasons,Associated Press reports.

IOC spokeswoman Emmanuelle Moreau confirmed in an e-mail onWednesday that the IOC had received a letter from the Georgian NationalOlympic Committee. She had no other immediate details or comment.

Ramaz Goglidze, first Vice President of the Georgian OlympicCommittee, termed Sochi a "very dangerous place" on the Around theRings website. Goglidze and Gia Natsvlishvili, the newly-electedPresident of the Georgian Olympic Committee, are to attend the GeneralAssembly of European Olympic Committees in Istanbul, Turkey, on Fridayand Saturday. They could raise the Sochi issue there.

Natsvlishvili said on an Azerbaijani website that his countryis not boycotting the Sochi Olympics, but asking the IOC to shift thegames to a "safer place." Salzburg has offered to step in to host thegames if Sochi is incapable of doing so.

"If the IOC needs us and also pays us a fair share of thosevery good Olympic Game revenues, I'm in," Salzburg Governor GabiBurgstaller said in an interview on Wednesday with the Austriannewspaper Wirtschaftsblatt. Black Sea Press has not received anycomment on this offer from the Georgian National Olympic Committee sofar.(Black Sea Press)

http://www.messenger.com.ge/issues/1738_november_21_2008/1738_news_in_brief.html