State Department Clarifies Warning
A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department clarified an advisory for United State Olympians in Russia on Friday.
Marie Harf, a spokesperson for the Department of State, said they were telling Olympians and U.S. travelers to "be careful of their surroundings."
Reports surfaced on Thursday that the State Department was advising athletes not to wear their uniforms outside of the venues.
The official advisory from the department was not as strong as reported, Around the Rings understands, and was a more athlete-specific version of the travel advisory issued a few weeks ago for U.S. travelers to the Games.
"This isn’t unique to Russia," Harf said. "We give this guidance around international events."
In a statement, USOC CEO Scott Blackmun said: "The safety and security of Team USA is our top priority. As is always the case, we are working with the U.S. Department of State, the local organizers and the relevant law enforcement agencies in an effort to ensure that our delegation and other Americans traveling to Sochi are safe."
Romney Believes Games Safe
The former head of the Salt Lake City Organizing Committee would not hesitate to send his family to the upcoming Sochi Games.
"I believe the Games will be safe," said Mitt Romney in an interview on NBC’s Today Show.
Romney, who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. president in 2012, said the problem areas will lie outside of the actual venues.
"It’s the soft places that you can’t be 100% certain will be entirely safe," said Romney, "but my guess is the Russians have done everything humanly possible to protect the Games."
He also said that the country remains a geopolitical foe to the United States due to its associations with "some of the world’s worst actors" like Kim Jong-Un and Bashar al-Assad. However, that should not necessarily rule it out as an Olympic host.
"I don’t think you hold off particular countries based upon their politics," said Romney.
Sochi Briefs…
…NHL stars are telling family not to come to Sochi due to security concerns. According to ABC News Radio, Roberto Luongo, Daniel Sedin and Ryan Suter are among the ice hockey players urging their family to stay home. "You hear all these stories about different things, and it's definitely a concern," Suter said. "But at the same time, I feel that the U.S. government and the Russian government is going to do everything in their power to protect us."
...Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev tells RIA Novosti that 1.2million tickets have been sold for next month’s Olympic Games. Sochi2014 organizers said recently that 70 percent of tickets had been sold.If both facts are true, then there were as many as 1.7 million ticketsoriginally available with as many as 500,000 remaining unsold.
...Medvedevin denying allegations of corruption: "Now we have no such data." Hesays speculation about wrongdoing can only be based on facts, not idlespeculation or emotions.
…Russia’s state press secretary sayssome countries are "quite shamelessly and brazenly trying to politicallydiscredit our Olympics in Sochi." Dmitry Peskov blamed the westerncountries for the slander.
Written by Ed Hula III and Nick Devlin
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