Odds and Ends for Thursday, March 2

News has kind of been spread out over the last few days, so I thought I'd just hit you with some quick bullet points for today.  Sochi has been all over the news the last few days, but not specifically for the Olympics.  At any rate, it is an indication that Russia is ready for Sochi to grow in international name recognition by hosting key meetings there, etc.  If nothing else, I'm sure they'd be thrilled to have a world leader not named Lukashenko swing through.  Just a thought. 

Also, I need to make this a regular feature (maybe on Fridays) and give it a jazzy name.  Any ideas?  At any rate:

• The Moscow Times has an English-language translation of a rather thoughtful and reasonable article from Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot).  In how the high-profile Sochi Games have turned the Circassian genocide from a local into an international issue.  Good reading.
• Globalpost.com reports that Russia has been "scandalized" by the results of the Olympic Mascots voting.  Yes, scandalized.  By voting for a cartoon leopard.
• RIA-Novosti reports that Russia has offered up Sochi to host the next meeting of the NATO-Russia Council.  Well, at least the weather would be nice.
• State-run ITAR-TASS reports that Sochi will also be hosting Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev and Armenian President Serge Sargsyan to discuss a host of issues, particularly the trouble in Nagorno-Karahabkh.  "Moscow shows patience and restraint, when acting as an intermediary in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It is sure that this stand will bring positive results," says an unidentified staffer in the Kremlin.  If only these beady-eyed Caucasians would approach regional security with the same tact as the Russians, we'd have kicked this thing years ago.  Or kicked everybody out, anway.
• And we'll conclude with good ol' fashioned Georgia bashing, courtesy Voice of Russia.  Nice to see a "news source" openly mock a foreign head of state.  Thanks for reading...