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...

Russia Decides on Sochi Mascots

Well, it's official.  There are five mascots for the Sochi Winter Olympics; the Hare, Polar Bear and Leopard will represent the Winter Olympics proper, while the Ray of Light and Snowflake will be representing the Paralympic Winter Games. 

A blog over at the Village Voice stacks up the mascots against some other iterations from Games past, giving proper due to Vucko, the ski-toting wolf who represented the 1984 Winter Games in Sarajevo.

As for what I think, well, it could have been a whole lot worse.  At least these things are actual, well, animals, and not creepy made-up non-animals.  Some of my least favorite: Izzy, the blue, um, thing at the 1996 Atlanta Games and the utterly terrifying Hidy and Howdy, two bears who represented the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary and look like they want to invite you into their cave to murder you.  Reminds me of "Bear City."  Anyone?  Just me again, huh?

A Bear by any Other Name...

Breaking news on the Olympic mascot front.  The official website of the 2014 Winter Games (English link here) has announced a short list of mascot candidates!  Straight from the bear's mouth:

The expert jury, consisting of prominent cultural, educational, sports, business and political figures, is chaired by Konstantin Ernst, CEO of Channel One Russia. After a review the 24,000 designs submitted during the contest, the jury shortlisted the top 10 Olympic and top 3 Paralympic mascot ideas from which the winners will be chosen in February 2011. The jury has decided that both animals - such as bears, leopards, dolphins, bullfinches, rabbits, and abstract characters - such as snowballs, snowflakes, traditional Russian nested dolls (Matreshkas) - can continue the race

Finding pictures of the images is relatively difficult in English but I was able to track down a collage of potential mascots created by the Voice of Russia.  Sochi residents had first crack at unofficially choosing the Olympic mascot because it was included on the March, 2008 presidential ballot. At that time, the dolphin won.  While it is unclear which character is the front-runner, it is clear that Russians have little tolerance for 'Zoich,' a frog with spinning Olympic rings for eyeballs. ('Zoich' comes from a relatively clever reading of the '2014' in the official Sochi Olympic logo.)

Olympic mascots have been around since the 1968 Winter Games in Grenoble, France and, by and large, have a history of being either terrifying or confusing (Izzy, anyone?).  Luckily, you can take a tour of all the Olympic mascots since the 1968 Games and see for yourself (link is in Russian, but is mostly just photos). 

Of course, the above mascot, 'Misha,' was the official mascot of the U.S.-boycotted 1980 Summer Games held in Moscow. 

It was interesting to hear that the Russians had appointed an 'expert jury' to sift through submissions; whether or not that's a good thing depends on your point of view.