Terrorist Incident Casts a Shadow on Sochi Olympics

When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) named Sochi as the site of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games it offered the prospect of Russian tourism to get beyond the dominant St. Petersburg/Moscow axis.

Sochi was described as the next St. Moritz and all of that international exposure would deliver new popular attractions in the Caucasus and even on the Black Sea. Much of that initial enthusiasm diminished when the Russian legislature unanimously adopted a law banning “gay propaganda,” that made it criminal to even show support for gay people in Russia.

Though the Olympic Charter states that "any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement,” the IOC was assured that Olympic athletes and visitors would not be harassed.

Then in late December came news of a horrific terrorist bombing in Volgograd (the former Stalingrad) reminded the outside world that there was a very real terrorist threat in hosting the Games so close to Chechnya.

Not long after the IOC decision, Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov called for new attacks against civilian targets in Russia, including the Sochi Games, which he characterized as “Satanic dances on the bones of our ancestors.”

Visitors can feel certain that the Russian government (www.visitrussia.org) will do everything in its enormous military power to prevent another Munich (1972) or Atlanta (1996) from happening. The Russian government is creating a vast zone around Sochi that will be guarded by tens of thousands of soldiers, police and even security drones.

The promised series of checkpoints and identity checks will be thorough. Anyone who has travelled in Russia is already familiar with the world’s most thorough and intrusive visa process. Cars from outside the zone around Sochi are even now being prohibited from entering the zone until after the Games are over.

But given the history of Chechen terrorism, which Americans only got a taste of in the Boston Marathon bombing, anything less than the tightest security would be irresponsible. Recent Chechen suicide bombings in Russia have been mostly performed by female suicide bombers recruited from the ranks of the widows of Chechen separatist fighters.

The attacks have targeted transport facilities such as buses, trains and aircraft. In response to inquiries about Sochi security, the IOC expressed confidence in the safety of the games but also made it a point to remind everyone that the responsibility for security belonged entirely to the host country.

Inside Sochi, so far, the news has all been good. Sochi attracted some 3.8 million tourists in 2013 and the city has been transformed with new hotels and ski resorts that have brought in a slew of international hospitality brands including Radisson, Park Inn, Golden Tulip, Pullman, Marriott, Swissotel and Capella.

Recently, Euromonitor International predicted a 20 percent increase in visitors to Russia that would be driven by major sporting events that would climax in 2018 with the FIFA World Cup in Moscow.

“Our business to Russia remains very strong,” said Bob Drumm, the president of General Tours. “It’s almost wholly tied into Moscow, St. Petersburg and Volga River cruising. I suspect it will take a lot more than a good Olympics to change that. As for the anti-gay legislation, the people I deal with in Russia are very progressive and don’t harbor any ill feelings toward gay people. All of this rhetoric we hear, well, politics seems to be disgusting everywhere.”

President Putin recently launched a charm offensive that included the freeing of 100 Greenpeace activists, the punk band Pussy Riot and billionaire Mikhail Khodorkovsky. There won’t be any retreat on the antigay legislation, but you wonder if the anger of the LGBT community will be felt over the long term.

According to estimates by the Gay European Tourism Association (GETA) gay European tourists spend more than $68 billion each year. Gay Americans spend around $64 billion.