Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics - Trouble brewing?

[Smiling Buddha]

Between Prince Bandar bin Sultan's threats to Putin re Syrian support, and the civil war slowly erupting in Ukraine, one wonders whether Russia's winter olympics might be in for a bumpy ride.

I remember smuggling a six-pack of Castle beer into Germany-England at the 2010 World Cup and thinking 'Gee, if I wanted to bomb this place, I bet it wouldn't be that hard'. Of course, South Africa doesn't have too many enemies on the world stage - she is not a geopolitical rival to the United States, for instance...

And so now I sit here and wonder whether we might see some fireworks at Sochi. There are some well-informed voices on this forum; can anybody give me an indication as to their confidence that Sochi will be trouble free?

 

[mojito]

The biggest threat, to state the obvious, is the militant from the Caucasus who would use this as a platform to embarrass Putin.

After the bus bombings in Volgorgrad, would be extremely surprised to not see reports of skirmishes before this is over.

 

[GOAUS!]

Man made bomb threats and demanded to go to the Winter Olympics, the Turks had to scramble a fighter jet. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-02-...man-suspected-of-bomb-threat-on-plane/5247202

 

[raskolnikov]

There is a rumour going around that the man who was responsible for the technical glitch has been found stabbed to death. I suspect it's a fake.

 

[Piers4Life]

They've invested more money than the entire wealth of Africa's economy into the security at Sochi.

Nothing will go wrong.

 

[telsor]

They've invested more money than the entire wealth of Africa's economy into the security at Sochi.

Nothing will go wrong.

Crazy idea, but with all the attention on Sochi, if you were a terrorist, why not bomb somehwere else? Russia is a big place, and a big bang would still get lots of extra attention due to the games.

 

[DrKrieger]

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There is a rumour going around that the man who was responsible for the technical glitch has been found stabbed to death. I suspect it's a fake.

Was a satirical article about it, had lines like Russian authorities saying "maybe he just fell onto a bunch of knives." Did look very believable though otherwise.

 

[Aed0s]

I read in an article somewhere that Putin threatened to retaliate much more aggressively than he normally has if terrorists decided to target Sochi during the Winter Olympics.