Olympic Protest Zones, Power Grid Updates, FBI Intervention

Russia Names Small Town Outside Sochi as Olympic Protest Zone

A town of around 20,000 people outside the main city of Sochi will serve as a so-called "protest zone" during next month’s Winter Olympics, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said Friday.

When he lifted a ban on protests earlier this month, President Vladimir Putin ordered a protest zone to be nominated. Any demonstrations during the Olympics or Paralympics must be approved by local authorities, the police and the security services.

Kozak revealed the zone would be a park in the small coastal town of Khosta, on the road between Sochi and the Olympic Park, around 12 kilometers from the nearest Games arenas. It is not clear whether there will be a similar zone near the Mountain Cluster of snow sports venues.

"At Khosta in the park people will be able to freely express their opinion without breaching the rights of other citizens and without breaching the Olympic charter," Kozak said.

"At the sports arena, at the sports facilities, in compliance with the Olympic charter, expressing political opinions is forbidden."

Russia’s state human right ombudsman Vladimir Lukin defended the choice of Khosta, saying it was easy to access.

"It’s possible to travel there by car, by bus or on the train from the center of Sochi, or from the sports center," he said. "So if people want to exchange opinions and express their views on any topic, they can do it easily."

The Sochi Olympics have so far attracted protests from groups opposed to Russian laws banning so-called "propaganda" about gay relationships, and from representatives of the Circassian people, who formerly inhabited Sochi before Russian conquest in the 19th century, which they claim was an act of genocide.

Some form of restrictions on protesting have been present at all recent Olympics. In Beijing in 2008, authorities introduced a strict permit system for protestors and arrested some demonstrators, while last year’s London Olympics restricted protests near venues but saw a number of demonstrations in other areas of the city during the Games.

Restrictions on movement in and around Sochi were brought in Tuesday and run through March 21, introducing "controlled" and "forbidden" zones. That followed a call from an Islamist insurgent leader for fighters to "compromise" the Games.

The controlled zones include all Olympic venues and infrastructure, including the coastal Olympic Park and the mountain cluster of skiing facilities; as well as all transport hubs including air, sea and rail.

The forbidden zones, meanwhile, include the border area separating Russia with the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia, which is just a few kilometers east of the coastal facilities; as well as Sochi National Park, an environmentally protected area.

The government has also tightened Russia’s mandatory registration system for its citizens visiting Sochi and prevented non-local cars from entering the city without a special Olympic accreditation.

Olympic Power Grid Still Unfinished

NOVO-OGAREVO, January 9 (R-Sport) - Workers in Sochi are still building the city’s new power grid with less than a month until it hosts the Winter Olympics, Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said Thursday.

Generators and other facilities are in place but the grid, with a web of 900 kilometers of power cable and 500 substations, is unlikely to come online until January 25, just 13 days before the opening ceremony.

"We’re planning to finish all the work by January 20 and to get permission to move the grid into use by January 25," Novak said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin.

Of 49 major energy projects for the Sochi Olympics, the grid is "the only facility that’s still being worked on," Novak added.

Construction of facilities for the Sochi Olympics has been largely smooth, avoiding the last-minute rush that brought notoriety to some Olympic Games of the past, such as Athens 2004.

FBI Sends Dozens of Agents to Help Guard Sochi Olympics

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is sending dozens of its personnel to Russia to help secure the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi from possible terror attacks, its director told reporters.

FBI director James Comey said about two dozen agents and other personnel will be sent to Moscow and more than a dozen others will be based in the Black Sea resort that is hosting the Winter Olympics from February 7 to 23. Some of them are already there, he told the Wall StreetJournal.

"Securing any Olympics is an enormous task," the Washington Post quoted Comey as saying. "I think it’s particularly challenging in Sochi because of its proximity to areas of unrest and sources of a terrorist threat."

Comey said although his agency is willing to help Russia, security at the Games is ultimately Moscow’s responsibility. He also expressed confidence that Russia will keep the Games safe.

"I think the Russian government understands the threat and is devoting the resources to address it," Comey told Reuters.

Russia launched the largest security operation in Olympic history this week in a bid to prevent terrorism, particularly from the neighboring North Caucasus, a region plagued by an Islamist insurgency.

Security was tightened for Sochi after two suicide bombers killed 34 people and injured more than 100 late last month in attacks on Volgograd's main train station and on a trolleybus. The city is 630 kilometers (400 miles) from Sochi.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks in Volgograd, but the Russian security services believe they were the work of Islamic militants from the North Caucasus region.

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

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