For most people the five interlocking Olympic rings represent sport's oldest and most prestigious summit. However, controversies revolving around certain Olympic host countries, medals won and lost, and the views vocalized by some athletes in the past has certainly politicized the athletic event. Most notably, the Munich, Moscow and Los Angeles Olympics come to mind.
The situation today is not much different. When the International Olympics Committee awarded the 2014 Winter Olympics to the Russian town of Sochi on its Black Sea coast, whether or not there would be a boycott or protest over the unlikely pick was a valid question. Speculation over the possibility that Vladimir Putin directly intervened in the selection process to champion for Sochi; Georgia's objections on the inclusion of Abkhazia to the Olympics; and the risk of terrorist threats in the sensitive region that is maybe too-close for comfort to Georgia, the scene of intense fighting just last August are just a few of the thorny issues.
Actually, the South Korean town of Pyong-Cang was the frontrunner during the selection period, and its chances seemed to have improved with the elimination of the Austrian town of Salzburg during the first round of elimination. The city had lost its bid for the 2010 games with only a small three-vote margin to Canada three years ago.
With Salzburg out of the running, the likelihood of South Korea emerging as the most likely host seemed to be high; and plans to form a united Korea team were well underway in anticipation. However, to the surprise of many, Sochi was officially selected. For certain, the then-President of the Russian Federation Putin's intense lobbying efforts in Guatemala were certainly an important factor behind Sochi's success.
Putin promised 12 billion dollars in investment to make Sochi a winter sports center at world standards. Just the organization of the games itself requires about 1.5 billion dollars.
At the time of the selection, infrastructure and facilities in Sochi were severely limited. Sochi is a vacation resort, where holidaymakers come for a swim during the summer and for a ski during the winter. Vladimir Putin is one of those visitors.
Putin, who is as familiar with the hillsides of Sochi as he is skilled in international diplomacy, has promised that the facilities will expand significantly. Although there are those who attribute the choice of Sochi to Putin-style pressure, it was the International Olympics Committee that made the final decision. Nonetheless, Sochi's selection is viewed as one of the biggest achievements of Putin's presidency.
When a 41 billion dollar investment for the 2014 Winter Olympics to be held in the Riviera of Russia was declared, Russian, European, American and Turkish corporations began to prepare for fierce competition. Turkey is expected to get an 8-10 billion dollar share of this cake. Turkish ports in the Black Sea, especially Trabzon, will likely experience a spike in trade levels. The 2014 Winter Olympics investment plan encompasses various towns in the Krasnodar region, of which Sochi is the center, and part of this plan includes construction of a Russia-shaped island in the Black Sea. This island alone accounts for 6.2 billion dollars of investment. Moreover, construction of approximately 250 sports facilities in Sochi and 40 new hotels in Anapa is planned. While European and American firms are mostly focused on technological infrastructure, Turks and Russians will grab the lion's share of construction and infrastructure projects.
Five million people live in the Krasnodar region. Since 2005, three million tourists visited Sochi and this number is expected to double or triple during the 2014 Olympics. Krasnodar is known as the third most popular region for attracting investment in the Russian Federation. The region boasts one of the best road networks, an international airport, tax advantages and incentives for investments. In a short period of time, Krasnodar received 800 million Euros in foreign direct investment and approximately 800 foreign firms from 70 different countries operate here.
However, the global economic crisis and fall in oil and commodity prices has raised important and for Russia, uncomfortable, questions of whether Russian can live up to its grandiose promises. Moscow seems highly determined. The Russian national currency, the Ruble, has lost one-fifth of its value since November. One-third of the Russian Central Bank's gold and foreign currency reserves eroded as a result of the financial slump. But Putin forcefully has stressed that the 2014 Winter Olympics will be held in Sochi, despite the risks ushered in by the global crisis. So far Putin insists that the Olympic facilities will be completed by 2012. In 2009 alone, 127 billion Rubles (3.6 billion dollars) have been earmarked for the 22nd Winter Olympics in Sochi . But the games' organizer, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, said in late February that the budget for the games' building venues would be cut by 15 percent as the country braces for an economic downturn.
The likelihood of a global financial meltdown and how it would affect Russia's plans for the Sochi games was a major concern for the European national committee officials at the meeting in Sochi in November 2008. The Russian government has provided financial assurances to relieve any doubt that it can go ahead with the games as planned. Putin has made it clear that in case the financial forecast takes a turn for the worse, Russia will use its own reserves. Moscow has insisted that work on Sochi's infrastructure has been completed, with construction of seven sports complexes nearing an end as well.
The head of the Austrian construction firm STRABECK, Heizel Steine has expressed satisfaction in dealing with the Russian government. According to Steine, the national committee has shown impressive progress and are especially open to cooperation with foreign firms. Needless to say that STRABECK is not a disinterested party, expecting to be paid around 500 million Euros.
Turkey's close proximity to the region provides a great advantage for Russia. In couple of years, Turkey's Black Sea city of Trabzon will become a critical port for Krasnodar. However, the same city is also on the United States agenda as its new gateway to the Caucasus, having recently lost the Manas airbase in Kyrgyzstan. In an unprecedented move, there have been reports that Russia is testing various defensive missile systems to protect Sochi during the games. Quite simply, the threat of weapons, political distress and terrorism could overshadow the spirit of the Olympics.
Sochi is the jewel of the conflict-ridden Caucasia, having just undergone severe escalation of tensions last year with the Georgian war. With its rising mountains at the shores of eastern Black Sea to the north of Georgia, today it still serves as a prime holiday resort for Kremlin officials, much like it did for Stalin during the USSR. Various ethnic and religious communities live within the borders of Krasnodar province, Terrorist attacks that have proven to test Russia have been heavily concentrated in this region. Now Moscow is betting on the Olympic spirit to diffuse tensions and terrorist infrastructure threatening the region

i Deutsche Welle, 31 January 2009.