Common Sense and Whiskey

Sochi Olympics Watch #15 - Wait. We LOVE Puppies.

We'll Just Sterilize the Little Bastards.

Sochi Olympics Watch #14 - Kill the Puppies

In an article with the headline Stray animal extermination to safeguard Sochi Olympics, a government official named Sergei Krivonosov says Sochi plans to kill more than 2,000 stray cats and dogs ahead of next February's Olympics "to ensure the safety of visitors...."

It's always a warm, secure feeling when your call is being recorded for your safety and convenience, or you have to turn off all electronic devices for your safety and convenience. It's heart warming that Russia plans to show its passion for your safety by killing animals.

Sochi Olympics Watch: Corruption? In the Russian Caucasus?

Imagine.

(Reuters) - Vladimir Putin fired a top Russian Olympic official on Thursday after publicly ridiculing him on a visit to half-finished sports complexes planned for a winter Olympics dogged by reports of corruption and construction delays.

Sochi Olympics Watch #13

The almost cosmic brilliance of the International Olympic Committee in picking Sochi as home of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games is again on display. See the article Russia 'foils Islamist plot to attack Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics.'

"They said the plot had been devised by the Chechen rebel Doku Umarov, the head of Caucasus Emirate, a rebel group that seeks to wrest the Caucasus region from Russia in order to set up an Islamist state."

"The committee said surface-to-air missiles, TNT and grenade launchers were among the weapons seized."

The Olympic city is less than 300 miles from Grozny. I'm just saying.

Eight Generic Things You Don't Need to Know

People respond to lists. They're a cheap way to attract eyeballs to your web site. So most content providers are weak enough to use them once in a while. Hey, it's Monday.

Some lists are okay, I guess. I like bullet points 4, 6, 8 & 9 in 17 Thoughts on Travel Lists on Perceptive Travel, for example.

When lists aren't used just as generic fluff and filler, you can discover worthy stuff, as in these seven remotest abandoned wonders on a blog called Web Urbanist. Name one other place you've learned about Dallol, Ethiopia and Múli, Faroe in the same article.

But boy, oh boy, when lists ARE used just as generic fluff and filler, you get, well, this.

•••••

See, I'm really skeptical about the coming 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia and I've opened up a section here on CS&W called Sochi Olympics Watch to collect others' thoughts. So, when I found a list titled Eight Things To Know About Attending The Next Olympic Games, in the spirit of research, I clicked right through.

But you don't need to.

No, on second thought, click on through. And see if all eight wouldn't apply to the next concert you go to, or even, say, your next trip to the driver's license renewal office. Go early and be prepared to stand in line. Hey thanks! Good stuff!

I'm Not Going

With this post and this link, Doug Merrill agrees with me on the dubiousness of the whole idea of the Sochi Olympics. For general background, watch The Caucasus Report.

Soccer Match: "the home stands resemble a funeral service for a gangster boss"

Grozny, 2011:

"Just like in the Brezhnev era, brigades of babushkas armed with brooms brush away the dirt on the city's central Putin Boulevard, in front of the facades of new department stores, high-rise office buildings and shops specializing in Islamic fashions. At the same time, there are increasing numbers of women who wear Islamic headscarves to avoid being punished by Sunni moral guardians. There are also few cafés left which circumvent the prevailing ban on alcohol by pouring vodka in the teapots." 

From Der Spiegel.

Sochi Olympics Watch #12

From The National Interest, about an attack that killed Moscow tourists at the ski resort of Mt. Elbrus in the Russian Caucasus, site of the 2014 winter Olympic games:

" ... In addition to the shooting, the terrorists blew up a ski lift at the resort, bringing down 40 gondolas. Luckily, the lift was empty and no one was hurt. Police also discovered three big bombs packed in a car at a nearby hotel parking lot, weighing in at over 150 lb of TNT. The escalating violence has stoked fears among Kremlin officials that the Sochi resort, host to the 2014 Winter Olympics, may be targeted."

You think?

Sochi Olympics Watch #11

No need to worry, then.

Sochi Olympics Watch #10

May not be that much need to buy those Sochi Olympics tickets early. What do you want to bet good seats will still be available?

*****

In 2006, we met several North Ossetian artists on our trip to Kazbegi, just across the border in the Republic of Georgia. In light of today's bloody bombing in Vladikavkaz, I send my sorrow and solidarity to the good people of North Ossetia.

The BBC has what they always call "disturbing video," and it surely is. The accompanying story says 16 are dead. The North Ossetians have had more than their share of grief. Beslan, where the gruesome 2004 school siege killed over 300, is also in North Ossetia.

But the news is grim throughout the northern Caucasus, as this quote from an AP article today shows:

In Dagestan, officials said Thursday that a hotel employee and another civilian were shot to death by men trying to build a bomb in their hotel room.

Republican Interior Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov said the shooting took place late Wednesday in the capital Makhachkala. He said three armed men fled a room in the small hotel after an explosion and opened fire on a hotel clerk and another person who confronted them. He says police found several bombs and six grenades in the room.

In the Dagestani town of Khasavyurt, on the border with Chechnya, a policeman returning home from work was shot to death, Gasanov said.

Dagestan is plagued by near-daily shootings and explosions blamed on criminal gangs and on militants inspired by the insurgency in neighboring Chechnya.

Before you head out for the 2014 Sochi Games, read some of the great, brave up-close reporting from throughout the region (including a nice description of why you likely wouldn't want to spend much of your vacation in a hotel in Makachkala, capital of Dagestan), in Towers of Stone by Wojciech Jagielski. A couple more suggestions here. More photos from Georgia here.

More Sochi Olympics Watch

Yesterday's CS&W post on the fun fun fun 2014 Sochi Olympics was ahead of its time. By a day.

This morning Interfax, via Reuters, reports "Seven killed in Russia's Dagestan region."

It's true that Derbent, site of the killings in the article, is about 300 miles from Sochi. It's also true that from Derbent, on the Caspian Sea in the east, to Sochi on the Black Sea in the west, the North Caucasus is mired in unrelenting violence.

Last month Time magazine wondered, kind of all wide-eyed-like, Is Sochi Safe Enough for the Olympics? Well, gee, I don't know, what do you think?

Here's "retired KGB Colonel Oleg Nechiporenko, now the chief analyst for Russia's National Anti-Terrorist and Anti-Criminal Fund," from the article:

"Even the idea of holding the Olympics has to be predicated on the end of all violent conflicts in the area, and here we are preparing to hold the Games in what is virtually the front line in our war on terrorism."

Like we say in advertising, Get Your Tickets Now!

Only 1332 Days Left!

As you continue planning your fun, fun vacation trip to the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympic Games, don't be left without these sources of local news:

The Caucasus Times has had a photo of Chechen head Ramzan Kadyrov's head at the top for a week now. It tells us "At Least Six Killed During Police Raid In Ingushetia."

Caucaz South Caucasus News asks, "Why did Russia's democratic transition fail?"

Pravda and The Moscow Times and ITAR-TASS (which tells us a traffic cop has been shot in the capital of Dagestan) and that "FSB officer wounded in Kabardino-Balkaria."

RFERL has a special North Caucasus section (which tells us President Medvedev is visiting today).

Hurriyet, the Turkish newspaper, has a special South Caucasus section.

Enjoy all the good, clean competition and international goodwill on that trip to Sochi.

Sochi Olympics Watch #7

More evidence of the almost cosmic brilliance of the International Olympic Committee in picking Sochi as home of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games:

''How stupid and crude to kill people in the (city) center; why would I need to do this?'' asked Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov in this morning's New York Times. There has been a bit of a dust up between President Kadyrov and the Austrian government these last few days, because the Austrians have indirectly accused Mr. Kadyrov of doing just that.

Does President Kadyrov imply that it would be less stupid and crude to kill people, say, in the back seat of a car after an abduction? Austria's anti-terrorism authorities suspect Kadyrov of planning to kidnap the dead man, Umar Israilov (one of the Chechen president’s bodyguards before falling out with him) in Vienna.

"It seems he was shot after the kidnapping failed," Gerhard Jarosch, a Viennese official, said.

If abduction and murder are less stupid and crude than killing people in the city center, then presumably President Kadyrov has cover in "a string of contract-style slayings — in Chechnya, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Moscow, Europe and the Middle East — that have silenced the Chechen president’s critics or rivals."

Sochi, the Olympic city, is less than 300 miles from Grozny, Mr. Kadyrov's seat of power and epicenter of the Chechen conflict that, by the most conservative estimates, killed 30,000 civilians. It's also about twenty miles up the Black Sea coast from the Republic of Georgia, with whom Russia fought the summer war of 2008, and less than 300 miles from Beslan, home to the 2004 school hostage crisis that killed at least 334.

Get your tickets early.

(See photos in the Russia Gallery and the Georgia Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)

Sochi Olympics Watch #6

Sochi, home of the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, is in a terrific neighborhood. Sochi and Makhachkala, for example, are a little less than 400 miles apart. Makhachkala, you ask?

Yep, Makhachkala, capital of Dagestan, boiling hot, humid center of crime and thuggery on the Caspian Sea.

The Unesco World Heritage site of Derbent is down the Caspian coast from Makhachkala. But you're unlikely to want to visit anytime soon because of the general state of lawlessness that prevails in Dagestan, where "Criminal activity is widespread throughout the region, often targeting the few foreign tourists that do continue to visit for kidnapping, extortion, and worse." 

Dagestan is one of the roiling north Caucasus republics that, along with Chechnya, Ingushetia, North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkessia (east to west), are giving the Russian fits. And are right next to Sochi.

Stratfor has an open access report this morning called The Caucasus Emirate. It notes that so far this year there have been double the number of killings in the region than last year at this time.

Why should this specific little slice of land throw up bands of militant Islamists? Why not Azerbaijan, which is adjacent to Dagestan, and has been predominantly Muslim forever, for example?

Wojciech Jagielski has a theory. A reporter for Gazeta Wyborcza, a mass daily in Poland, he's also the author of Towers of Stone, a terrific book about his war reporting in the Caucasus. To summarize and greatly simplify, the people of the North Caucasus allowed the godless Soviet system to replace their old, moderate Islamic way of life, and once that system collapsed, they couldn't very well return to their old ways, which they had rejected just 70-odd years before. So in effect they doubled down, and embraced the much more austere version of Islam that visitors from Arab lands brought with them.

Jeffrey Tayler visited Makhachkala, and even Derbent, for his book Murderers in Mausoleums. A quote:

We climbed out of the Volga's smoke-befouled cabin into a Bengali blaze to confront a scene reminiscent of Partition and the mass flight of refugees. Throngs of heavyset scarved women and short, swaggering men surged up the steps, dragging tawdry bundles and taped-together suitcases; following them, glancing about fearfully, were boys in skullcaps and little girls with babies lashed to their backs. Up on the platform the police checked papers... troops, clad in camouflage and wielding Kalashnikovs, loitered, stone-faced, in groups of three and four.

Any idea where he's talking about? Yep, it's the Makhachkala train station. And you can be sure, as with any Jeffrey Tayler book, it only gets worse.

Remarkably, there's a Dagestan Travel Guide on the internet. It's where the quote in the third paragraph about criminal activity, kidnapping and extortion came from. It goes on, "Dagestan shares along with the rest of the North Caucasus an extravagantly corrupt official culture and bribes and harassment are business as usual."

But if you should still wish to go, the Dagestan Travel Guide ends with this good cheer: "Visitors should know that there is no real embassy or consulate in Dagestan. Your best bet would be Moscow in Russia, Tbilisi in Georgia, Baku in Azerbaijan, or Yerevan in Armenia. Good luck!"

(Read more Sochi Olympics Watch articles here. Haven't been to the North Causacus yet, but you can see photos from the South Caucasus in the Armenia Gallery, the Azerbaijan Gallery and the Georgia Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)

Sochi Olympics Watch #5

Alexi Bayer points out in the Moscow Times something we have been saying: the 2014 Sochi Winter Games will be "a major global event that will be held in direct proximity to a restive, lawless region where terrorism is a near-daily occurrence."

(Photo from Sochi, an Olympic Makeover, in the Washington Post.)

Your Holiday in Grozny Just Got Easier

RFERL's Caucasus Report tells us that "Russia, Georgia Move To Restore Transport Links" at the Verkhny Lars/Zemo Larsi border crossing and via direct flights. Zemo Larsi, on the Georgia side, is in the beautiful Kazbegi region of Georgia, a few hours drive up the Georgian Military Highway from the capitol, Tbilisi.

Across the border in Russia lies North Ossetia, whose capital Vladikavkaz is maybe twenty five miles (40 k) on down a road that will get you to Grozny, the capital of Chechnya in about another fifty miles (80 k). Or take a left after Vladikavkaz and it's a short drive to Beslan, home of the September 2004 schoolhouse siege that killed over 300.

It's a daunting neighborhood. And it's all less than 300 miles (482 k) from the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Sochi. Get your tickets early. (We're keeping an eye on Sochi in our Sochi Olympics Watch.)

At least until the summer war between Georgia and Russia in August 2008, the Georgia side of the border was lovely and peaceful, and I imagine it is again. If you ever visit Georgia, a drive up from Tbilisi to the community of Kazbegi, near the border, will make you feel like a real adventurer.

The border crossing that's reopening is spectacularly located, too, along a narrow pass in the high Caucasus through which the River Terek rushes as if out of control. On our trip to Kazbegi in 2006 we visited the border as guests of an Army Corps of Engineers contractor who was then on the job of constructing the Georgian side of the border crossing. Here's what it looked like in June, 2006:

Note the sheer vertical canyon walls and the tiny gap where the road continues, up ahead in the photo past the buildings under construction.

It really is dramatic scenery. Have a look at the spectacular mountain scenery in our Georgia Gallery at EarthPhotos.com, and read more about our visit to Kazbegi town.

"Let's be blunt. Not having a favorite biscuit is unnatural — freakishly so."

- That quote is from an article that also contains this: " "While it's entirely possible to negotiate adult life without a favorite football team or holiday destination, only robots (and Gordon Brown) can't name their favorite biscuit."

A few other odds and ends from the weekend:

- Next time you're somewhere far, far away... rub it in! A fun application, useful for boasting, from Lufthansa.

- Pretty funny: Bad Art for Putin.

- And while in Russia, if this stadium, for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, is in fact built and looks like the drawing, I'll... well, I'll be very surprised.

Sochi Olympics Watch #4

Sochi, Russia, home to the 2014 Winter Olympics, held elections yesterday to choose the leadership that will govern through the games. The Kremlin-backed candidate, Anatoly Pakhomov, took about 77% of the vote.

The principal challenger was Boris Nemtsov, a young reformer who was elected to the Supreme Soviet of the Russian Republic representing the closed city of Gorky (later renamed Nizhny Novgorod) in 1990. Nemtsov took a distant second 13 per cent of the vote and has promised a legal challenge.

President Dmitry Medvedev insisted this month that Russia “had, has, and will have democracy.” Headlines like these invite skepticism:

Russia: Opposition Charges Election Fraud in Future Olympic Host City
Russian mayor faces poll fraud case
Pro-Kremlin candidate wins Sochi mayoral poll amid claims of fraud
Activists decry Russia's latest case of ‘managed democracy'
Opposition Vows To Contest Ruling Party's Sochi Win

Sochi is about twenty miles up the Black Sea coast from the Republic of Georgia, with whom Russia fought the summer war of 2008, and less than 300 miles from Beslan, home to the 2004 school hostage crisis that killed at least 334, and Grozny, epicenter of the Chechen conflict that, by the most conservative estimates, killed 30,000 civilians.

Get your tickets early.

(See photos in the Russia Gallery and the Georgia Gallery at EarthPhotos.com.)

Sochi Olympics Watch #3

"The goal of Olympism is to place sport at the service of the harmonious development of man, with a view to promoting a peaceful society concerned with the preservation of human dignity." - Fundamental Principle #2 in the Olympic Charter.

It's time to start a new CS&W feature about all the harmony and human dignity going on near the site of the 2014 winter games, Sochi, on the Russian Black Sea (previous discussion here and here). Today's edition starts with this from the New York Times:

Blast in Ingushetia Kills 5 Police Officers

Now take a look at this map (which comes from Maplandia):

 

Surkhakhi, near the blast site, is marked with the arrow. Nicely positioned between Grozny, Chechnya and Beslan, home of the 2004 school hostage tragedy, Surkhakhi is roughly 260 air miles from Sochi, which is on the Black Sea coast, left.

Under 150 miles to the east of Surkhaki, RFERL reports At Least Nine Die In Armed Clashes In Daghestan. The Russian border with Georgia is scarcely 60 miles to Surkhaki's south, and across that border, RFERL reports Georgian Opposition Party Says Members Arrested.

And speaking of Georgia, RFERL also says Russia To Defend Abkhazia, South Ossetia Borders as part of the fallout from last summer's war. The distance up the coast from Abkhazia to Sochi? Oh, maybe ten miles.

Nice little post script: When the world's athletes arrive, including the U.K.'s, the mayor there to greet them just might be "Andrei Lugovoi, a Duma deputy with the Liberal Democratic Party of Russia who is wanted in Britain for the murder of former security officer Aleksandr Litvinenko."

Gee, better get your tickets early.

Hard to Feel Good About the 2014 Sochi Games

 

Business Week and Spiegel Online  report that all is not well in planning for the 2014 winter Olympic games in Sochi. As they put it, "So far things are a bit of a mess." 

Their report notes that, "construction costs are rising and the oligarchs who are supposed to build the arenas for the Games are running out of money in the financial crisis." Indeed, in the last week almost a billion dollars in budget cuts have been announced.

But there's something just a little more fundamental at work here, namely, the original IOC decision to award the games to the Russian Black Sea resort. Sochi is maybe twenty miles up the road from an internationally contested hot spot, the once Georgian province of Abkhazia. On a line, it's maybe 200 miles from Tskhinvali, capital of the Georgian, but Russian-occupied, province of South Ossetia.

And scarcely 250 miles west of Sochi lies Grozny, ground zero in the vicious Chechen wars. Today's International Herald Tribune carries the following story: Chechen leader imposes strict Islamic code.

Business Week/Spiegel points out that there have been six bomb attacks in Sochi proper over the past year, and four people have died.

The last Russian games were the American-boycotted 1980 Moscow summer Olympics. Perhaps the IOC decided that after 34 years, it was Russia's turn again. We'll see how it turns out, but the Olympic Committee's wisdom at picking the Russian Caucasus looks a little dicey from here.

See photos of the Caucasus and Black Sea region in the Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan & Turkey galleries at EarthPhotos.com.