Thursday, January 2, 2014

Sochi Winter Olympics:the Fortress Games

The most costly and threatened Olympic games in history will be underway in Sochi,Russia in five weeks' time.Russia is spending 54 billion dollars on the games and the massive security effort to protect them.
Some 50,000 troops and police are being deployed to the Games and surrounding area.Spectators will be vetted from their passport information,and surveillance will be heavy.The likelihood is that,despite their boasts,the highly skilled terrorists will not directly attack the fortress which has been created around the Sochi Games itself,which are geographically the most compact Olympic Games in history.They will strike softer outlying areas instead such as Volgograd,the transportation hub 400 miles northeast of Sochi,or other targets even farther away.
Last week,37 people were killed in Volgograd in back to back suicide bombings on a bus and a train station.If you travel to the Sochi Games,there is an extra element of risk in your life,centered around public transport.Your safety cannot be fully guaranteed.It's a very small extra risk-one that only you and your family can decide if it's worth taking.
Security will be similar to that surrounding the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics in early 2002,five months after the 9-11 attacks.At that Olympics,the US Marines and Army,as well as the National Security Agency,provided mountain and airspace patrols and surveillance.It will be noticeable,and people will complain about it,said interational ice hockey federation president Rene Fasel.I'm sure Russia will do everything possible,but that means we have an unbelievable security control.We have to be strong.We decided to go to Sochi and the only answer to these bombings and terrorist incidents is to go there.
The Australian Olympic Committee is restricting its athletes' travel to flights only,according to IOC vice president and AOC head John Coates.

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