Medvedev Pledges Safe Olympics; Rogge Downplays Terrorist Threat

(ATR) Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says delivering a safe and secure Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics is a top priority in the wake of the bomb blast at Moscow's busiest airport Domodedovo. IOC president Jacques Rogge downplayed the security threat to the Sochi Games on Tuesday.

"You have to pay maximum attention to the anti-terrorist security of the APEC summit in Vladivostok in 2012, the Summer Universiade in Kazan in 2013 and the Winter Olympics in Sochi in 2014," Medvedev told Russia's senior security officials at an emergency meeting Tuesday.

The suicide bomb Monday killed 35 people and injured more than 100 others at the city's biggest airport, raising fresh security concerns for the IOC about Russia's terrorism record in the build-up to the Games.

Domodedovo is a major transport hub to reach the Black Sea resort. Some Olympic officials, representatives of Sochi 2014 stakeholders and winter sports athletes currently use the airport to connect to Sochi.

Next month, a number of athletes traveling to Sochi for the first Winter Olympic test events are expected to go through the airport.

Sochi officials will test the recently completed Rosa Khutor Alpine Resort with the Alpine FIS Europa Cup for men from Feb. 15-18 and the women's event Feb. 22-26.

Blaming Domodedovo airport management for "clear security breaches", Medvedev claimed Tuesday that terrorism was the most serious threat facing Russia. No group has taken responsibility for the blast, but militants in the North Caucasus region are suspected of staging the attack.

IOC president Jacques Rogge downplayed the security threat to the Sochi Games in an interview with Reuters Television.

"We live in a dangerous world, I mean this is not the first terrorist attack on a capital, I mean everyone remembers what happened in London the day after we elected London in 2005," Rogge said.

"There have been incidents in Madrid, there have been incidents in other cities, it's just a fact of life. We live in a dangerous world."

Rogge said the IOC trusted Sochi authorities "to provide the bestpossible security and we are working very closely with them".

Monday's attack was the worst act of terrorism on Russian soil since March last year when two Moscow metro bombings killed 40 people.

The IOC Coordination Commission chaired by Jean-Claude Killy will be looking for reassurances on Russia's anti-terrorist strategy in the build-up to and during the Games when it visits March 22 to 24.

Environmentalists Cry Foul After Sochi’s UNEP Inspection

A group of environmentalists are claiming Sochi 2014 obstructed their access to United Nations Environment Program officials during their weekend inspection of Games works.

"Wemet with four experts from the UNEP," Environment Watch North Caucasus spokesman Suren Gazaryan was quoted Monday by The Moscow Times, "but the organizing committee, which arranged the visit, did all it could to delay and limit the amount of time we spent with them."

Gazaryan alleges EWNC’s meeting with UNEP wasn’t announced until the last minute and was purposely scheduled for shortly before the delegation’s departure.

The UN officials were in Sochi for their annual inspection of the 2014 host city.

EWNC is one of a number of groups protesting against the negative environmental effects they claim will arise from the Olympic construction projects in and around the Black Sea resort.

Both Greenpeace Russia and the Russian bureau of the World Wildlife Fund boycotted the UNEP visit, according to The Moscow Times, because they believe the inspections are part of a public relations campaign to "greenwash" the Sochi Winter Games.

Written by Mark Bisson and Matthew Grayson.