Obama Unlikely in Sochi; Olympic News Agency Will Fulfill Obligations

Obama Unlikely to Attend Sochi Olympics, US Envoy Suggests

US President Barack Obama is unlikely to attend February’s Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, but could send a delegation headed by "former advisors," the U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul suggested Wednesday.

Obama has attended neither of the two Olympics that have taken place during his five years in office, but has sent high-level figures to lead the U.S. delegations - Vice President Joe Biden headed the American presence at Vancouver 2010, while First Lady Michelle Obama was present for London 2012.

"There will be a presidential delegation, that’s 100 percent," McFaul said in Russian-language comments.

"His wife opened the London Olympics, and it happens that sometimes (the delegation) is former advisors or a famous person connected with Obama. But there’s a discussion still going on about who will head it."

The delegation will be present at the Sochi opening ceremony February 7 and closing ceremony February 23, as well as for March’s Paralympics, McFaul added.

Germany’s president Joachim Gauck will not attend, magazine Der Spiegel has reported, in what has been widely seen as a protest against Russian human rights issues.

Poland, which often has strained relations with Russia, has vowed to send a delegation, but it will not include Prime Minister Donald Tusk and may not feature President Bronislaw Komorowski.

Georgia, which fought a war with Russia in 2008, has said it will send athletes to Sochi but no government officials.

Sochi Olympics Host Agency to Fulfil Duties Despite Changes - New Head

Olympic host news agency RIA Novosti will fulfil its obligations at the Sochi Games despite being due to be abolished and absorbed into a new company, incoming head Dmitry Kiselyov said Tuesday.

The Kremlin announced Monday the dissolution of RIA Novosti, the country’s major state-run news agency, of which R-Sport is a part, amid a wide-ranging reorganization of state-owned media assets.

News agency RIA Novosti and the state-owned Voice of Russia radio will be scrapped and absorbed into a new media conglomerate called Rossiya Segodnya under Kiselyov, according to a decree signed by President Vladimir Putin.

RIA Novosti and its sports arm R-Sport were given Olympic host agency status for the February 7-23 Sochi Games by the International Olympic Committee in 2011.

"I can assure you that [the Olympic obligations] will be fulfilled, both by today’s agency and by tomorrow’s agency," Kiselyov said. "Organizing this work is an urgent task."

He did not specify whether the Olympic coverage would be provided under the current RIA Novosti and R-Sport brands.

The dissolution of RIA Novosti is the latest in a series of shifts in Russia’s news landscape, which appear to point toward a tightening of state control in the already heavily regulated media sector.

The changes, including legislative amendments, must be carried out by the government within three months, according to the Kremlin. Rossiya Segodnya will be located in the current RIA Novosti building in downtown Moscow, the decree said.

RIA Novosti was set up in 1941, two days after Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union, as the Soviet Information Bureau, and now has reporters in over 45 countries providing news in 14 languages.

Published by exclusive arrangement with Around the Rings’ Sochi 2014 media partner RIA-Novosti.

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