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Sochi 2014 related news


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Russian freestyle champion banned from Sochi Olympics for doping abuse

MOSCOW, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) -- Russian freestyle skiing star Anna Orlovskaya will miss the Sochi Winter Olympic Games for abusing anti-doping rules, the national anti-doping agency said Monday.

With less than two months remaining until the start of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, the 18-year-old Russian champion in slopestyle and ski half-pipe disciplines has been banned from competitions for two years.

The agency did not specify what Orlovskaya's exact offence has been, but said the decision was made on Nov.19.

She finished ninth at the World Cup slopestyle competition and 13th at the World Junior Championships, both in March.

The rising Russian star thus also missed the slopestyle competitions which started in Canada on Friday.

The Sochi Olympics will feature slopestyle event for the first time in the Games history.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sports/2013-12/09/c_132954264.htm

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Would anyone else enjoy it if these Games turn out to be an utter failure?

Because I'm coming round to that opinion, especially with the latest news of Putin's dictatorship....

President Vladimir Putin on Monday appointed a controversial news anchor to head a restructured state news agency, a move signaling the Kremlin's intention to tighten control over the media and use it increasingly for propaganda of ultraconservative views.

Dmitry Kiselyov, who spent much of his weekly news program on state Rossiya television maligning homosexuality and speculating about Western-led conspiracies, was put in charge of all the resources of the former RIA Novosti, which was renamed Rossiya Segodnya (Russia Today).

The agency has been known for news coverage that at times appeared too comprehensive for the government's comfort, including active reportage on the anti-Putin protest movement.
The appointment makes Kiselyov the chief executive in a company of 2,300 employees, removable only by Putin himself. That promotion has come as a shock to many who previously derided the pro-Kremlin pundit — who controversially suggested that the internal organs of homosexuals should be burned and buried rather than donated — as an irrelevant lackey.

Kiselyov has also proven an avid attack dog on the issue of homosexuality, as international criticism over a Russian law banning gay "propaganda" reached a fever pitch this summer. The TV anchor said that homosexuals' hearts should be buried or burned, and that gays should be banned from donating blood or organs, which were "unsuitable for the prolongation of anyone's life."

He has turned his guns as well on the Kremlin's internal foes, airing critical accounts of opposition activists such as Alexei Navalny, who garnered nearly a third of the vote in an election for Moscow mayor in September. Kiselyov ran footage of Nazi marches, directly comparing the crowd's adulation of Hitler to that of Navalny's own audience: "A recognizable exultation, is it not?"

Russian media outlets speculated that the reshuffle was aimed at RIA Novosti's former director, Svetlana Mironyuk, who presided over the company's more objective coverage of massive anti-Putin protests sparked by a fraud-tainted parliamentary vote in 2011. While Mironyuk was said to be backed by some liberal figures in the Kremlin, that reportage received a more critical reception among its hawkish wing.

RIA Novosti's relatively broad coverage — particularly in its foreign language services — was even on display in the report on its own dissolution that said the changes "appear to point toward a tightening of state control in the already heavily regulated media sector."

While officials have claimed that the move is simply an attempt to make the company run more efficiently, Kremlin chief of staff Sergei Ivanov asserted the importance of the company's new political message in comments on Monday: "Russia ... strongly defends its national interests: it's difficult to explain this to the world but we can do this, and we must do this."


http://bigstory.ap.org/article/russia-news-agency-appoints-controversial-leader

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This made me laugh, The Russians were saying how their security would be nothing like Londons which they deemed over the top. Erm, thats a tank, er no thats two tanks. Really subtle.

http://bednenkiy.livejournal.com/65713.html

It's not exactly picturesque, is it? The broadcasters will have to get creative. Apart from the venues, the architecture is uninspired. So is the landscaping. There still seems to be quite a bit of rubble as well.

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The country President Germany Joachim Gauck where the IOC President Thomas Bach comes from Boycotting the games this is massive, With an unfinished main stadium less the 2 months to go to the games begins it is not looking good at all for Sochi Russia. This will be like Beijing 2008 with the cost and the Delhi 2010 with the lateness of the venues. Beijing China finish all the cleaning work for the main stadium with four months to go it is still a building site in Sochi Russia now, NOT GOOD AT ALL.

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And yet it's symbol of a brutal dictatorship.

It's a great piece of music.

Should it's mudical excellence be discarded because of past history? Why not keep the great music and develop a better system of government? The problem isn't the music. It's the government.

Should we tear down the pyramids because they are symbols of slavery and oppression? No.

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It's a great piece of music.Should it's mudical excellence be discarded because of past history? Why not keep the great music and develop a better system of government? The problem isn't the music. It's the government.Should we tear down the pyramids because they are symbols of slavery and oppression? No.

Did I say anything about its artistic merit? I just pointed out the connotations of that piece of music.

And I dare say Putin didn't reinstate it because of its artistic merit, but because of his dream to reinstate the Soviet power. Unlike the pyramid slaves, there is still plenty of people alive for whom this great piece of music is very personally associated with suppression, fear and suffering.

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The country President Germany Joachim Gauck where the IOC President Thomas Bach comes from Boycotting the games this is massive, With an unfinished main stadium less the 2 months to go to the games begins it is not looking good at all for Sochi Russia. This will be like Beijing 2008 with the cost and the Delhi 2010 with the lateness of the venues. Beijing China finish all the cleaning work for the main stadium with four months to go it is still a building site in Sochi Russia now, NOT GOOD AT ALL.

Bloody IOC, could have saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had awarded 2014 to Almaty, after all.

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Did I say anything about its artistic merit? I just pointed out the connotations of that piece of music.

And I dare say Putin didn't reinstate it because of its artistic merit, but because of his dream to reinstate the Soviet power. Unlike the pyramid slaves, there is still plenty of people alive for whom this great piece of music is very personally associated with suppression, fear and suffering.

I agree with you about Putin's motivation. It is disappointing. Good music though.

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Did I say anything about its artistic merit? I just pointed out the connotations of that piece of music.

And I dare say Putin didn't reinstate it because of its artistic merit, but because of his dream to reinstate the Soviet power. Unlike the pyramid slaves, there is still plenty of people alive for whom this great piece of music is very personally associated with suppression, fear and suffering.

Interesting that despite this, none of the other former Eastern bloc nations changed their anthem after the fall of Communist rule. Perhaps they pre-dated Communist rule, or it's simply not that big an issue.

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Should national anthems be tainted by national regimes and wrongdoings we should cleanse the world of beautiful pieces of music such as Kimi ga Yo, Deutschlandlied, The Star Sprangled Banner and the list goes on. The Russian anthem today has new lyrics praising the russian landscapes, brotherhood and peaceful stuff. Not a word about battles, war and bloodshed. Of many things we should be criticizing Russia today, their national symbols is probably the least relevant.

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France: President Francois Hollande Will Not Attend 2014 Winter Olympics In Russia's Sochi

PARIS, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Neither President Francois Hollande nor any top French official will attend the 2014 Winter Olympics in Russia's Sochi, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Sunday.

Fabius offered no explanation for the move.

The decision to hold the Winter Olympics in Russia has been criticised in France due to concerns about human rights abuses and a law passed in June that bans "gay propaganda" which critics say discriminates against homosexuals.

"There are no plans to attend," Fabius told Europe 1 radio, referring to Hollande and himself. "Top French officials have no plans to be there."

German President Joachim Gauck's office announced last week that he would not be attending the Games and the government's human rights commissioner praised Gauck's decision as a "wonderful gesture".

Reuters

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/15/francois-hollande-olympics_n_4449546.html

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50 Days until The Opening Ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi, Russia. Preperations around the Venues seem to be going smoothly, Fisht Olympic Stadium is in the latter stages of Construction.

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