Russian President Vladimir Putin skis at the resort of Abzakovo, near Magnitogorsk, some 1,350 kilometers (844 miles) east of Moscow, on January 7, 2003.
Photo: AP
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Sochi Stakes
// Sochi Preens for IOC Inspection Committee in Anticipation of 2014
Yesterday an inspection commission from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) arrived in Russia's Black Sea port of Sochi. The commission's report will be a key component of the town's chances to be a serious contender for the right to hold the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. The other two cities on the short list are Salzburg, Austria and Pyeongchang, South Korea.
International Olympic Committee (IOC) Vice-President Chiharu Igaya will spend five days in Sochi at the head of the 13-member inspection committee. The commission will make a detailed inspection of Sochi's bid book and will visit the proposed locations for the Olympic facilities. The commission's task is to evaluate the degree to which the candidate city measures up in 17 different areas, including sporting facilities, transportation and accommodation infrastructure, security, funding, and ecology. Based on its findings, the commission will compile a technical account that will be made public no later than a month before the choice is made for the host city of the 2014 Winter Olympics. The decision will be made on July 4 of this year at a meeting of the IOC in Guatemala.
Dmitry Chernyshenko, the general director of the bid committee Sochi-2014, reminded Kommersant's correspondent that the inspection commission is now the only IOC representative that is allowed to visit the candidate cities, in the wake of the scandal eight years ago in which Salt Lake City was chosen to host the 2002 Winter Games. Thus, making a good impression on the commission during its visit is extremely important. Until the publication of the commission's report later this year, however, it will be difficult to say how well Sochi faired in the round of show and tell, since the inspectors are forbidden to reveal any direct assessments and generally prefer to say as little as possible beyond standard compliments and occasionally pointing out an insufficiency that was discovered during the inspection.
According to experts at Around the Rings and Games Bids, two authoritative sites that are hardly ever mistaken in naming the eventual winner of bids for the Olympics, Pyeongchang and Sochi are running neck and neck on the basis of many different factors: they are equal at 76 according to Around the Rings and at 62.98 for Sochi and 62.01 for Pyeongchang at Games Bids. Salzburg beats them on both sites: 87 at Around the Rings and 65.35 at Games Bids. However, these rankings do not take into account the visits by the IOC's inspection commission, which will undoubtedly have a significant impact – whether positive or negative – on the standings.
Sochi has undergone weeks of preparations for the visit, including ordering dual-language road signs and several fancy tour buses, preparing to showcase renovated hotel and sanitorium rooms, and ordering English versions of the Russian menus in the town's bars and restaurants. Restaurant and hotel managers have been instructed to organize crash courses in English for their staff, and the local police have been furnished with Russian-English phrase books to help them with such essential phrases as, "You are disturbing the peace! Please stop immediately!" and the crucial tourist request "There is no toilet paper. Can you please bring me a roll?"
The inspectors will be accompanied by numerous Russian officials connected with Sochi's Olympic bid, including Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, the head of the Sochi-2014 committee; Sochi Mayor Viktor Kolodyazhny; Krasnodar Krai Governor Alexander Tkachev; Russian Trade and Economic Development Minister German Gref and several other ministers; Rossport head Vyacheslav Fetisov; and Russian Olympic Committee President Leonid Tyagachev. The bid committee also confirmed for Kommersant that Russian President Vladimir Putin will make an appearance.
The Sochi committee does have some cause to worry, however. First of all, Sochi, unlike Pyeongchang and Salzburg, can boast of no completed Olympic sporting facilities. Second, a series of scandals involving Sochi and its Olympic bid have attracted unwanted attention in the last six months, most notably a suit brought by Greenpeace Russia against the government that challenges the legality of the federal development plan for the Sochi area. The group claims that the government's plan, "The Development of the City of Sochi as a Mountain Resort (2006-2014)," "was not subjected to government ecology review procedures, as federal law requires." A decision in the case is expected on March 5. Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Federation have also locked horns with the Russian government over nature reserves around Sochi; Greenpeace Russian head Igor Chestin wrote a letter to Vladimir Putin accusing the government of greed and blatant disregard for protected wildlife zones in the pursuit of profit. According to the ecologists, several building projects that are slated for the Sochi area are within the boundaries of a national park and, moreover, actually have nothing to do with the Olympics – they are merely a convenient cover for unscrupulous construction deals. The federal commission led by Mr. Zhukov was formed in response to the letter, though the government has not responded to the allegations other than with a promise to invite ecologists to review all of the Olympic projects.
Yet another scandal blew up when Alpika Servis, the owner of the lone ski lift in the Krasnaya Polyana ski resort, unexpectedly shut down the lift for several says at the end of January, a move that almost brought the local tourism market to its knees. Coincidentally, the shut-off occurred at almost the exact moment that Economic Development Minister Gref was presenting his glowing report to President Putin at the president's residence in Sochi regarding preparations for the bid to host the Olympics. As if that were not enough, an accident at the beginning of February left the city without power.
Nevertheless, members of the Sochi-2014 committee sounded upbeat during a conversation with Kommersant's correspondent yesterday. "The location of each sporting facility has a presentation pavilion showing mockups, computer models, and presentation materials. Thanks to them and expert explanations, the members of the inspection commission will be able to hear everything about our future stadiums," said Dmitry Chernyshenko. He also disputed the claim that Sochi has no sporting complexes, pointing out that the final of the Ski Russia competition will take place in the region on February 21, and glossed over the problems with the ecology activists and the ski lift, saying only that the committee is engaged in "active dialog" with the ecologists and that ecology concerns are included in the bid book. The committee's marketing and media director, Andrei Braginsky, added that the ski lift "is a local problem…[that] bears no relation whatsoever to the bid."
"I am absolutely convinced," he said," that our bid has numerous advantages…there is an extremely high level of support from the federal government and the population of the city and of Russia. The weather is perfect: people are sunbathing on the beach, and the mountains are full of snow. And in general, the town already looks ready for the Olympics."
The IOC commission will complete its inspection tour with a trip to Salzburg on March 14-17.
Alexei Dospekhov, Yulia Taratuta, Gennady Shmelev (Sochi)
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 19, 2007
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