In a live, two-hour program (“Talismania: Sochi 2014″) televised across Russia on Channel 1, Sochi’s Olympic Games organizing committee announced the three winning mascot designs – the snow rabbit, the polar bear and the snow leopard – for the upcoming 2014 Winter Games. These three mascots collected 62% of the votes, with the snow leopard mascot accounting for 28% of the votes, and the polar bear and snow rabbit picking up 18% and 16% of the votes, respectively. (Coincidentally, Vladimir Putin had strongly suggested during the voting process that the snow leopard was his personal favorite)

In a bit of a last-minute surprise, the Sochi 2014 organizing committee had only planned to pick one winner — but ended up going with a “troika” of winners. (Watching live on Russian television, it seemed to me that the decision to go with a troika of winners was a bit of a disappointment for the audience members, who supported their favorite mascot designs as if it were a Eurovision song competition.) Congrats to all the winning mascot designers — especially Vadim Pak, who designed the snow leopard mascot!

[image: Russia's Channel 1]

“Krasnaya Polyana is a unique resort area with the fascinating past and a great future. A natural combination of mountains, glaciers and lakes makes this Russian resort a place of exceptional beauty at all seasons… Discover the world of sophisticated taste where views of majestic mountains meet the transparency of rapid mountain rivers.”

The history of Krasnaya Polyana dates back to the 19th century, when imperial representatives attempted to make the mountainous region part of the Tsar’s official winter hunting grounds. Nearly 150 years later, the area has become one of the favorite ski areas of Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, who maintains a winter residence nearby.

via: Peak Hotel

“Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, who attended the downhill competition with President Dmitry Medvedev, insisted the course was as good as those in the Alps. “I asked the guys about it today and they say that in comparison with Austria, Switzerland it’s excellent,” Putin said, referring to race competitors. “The specialists say it’s one of the best slopes in the world.”

International skiers and ski officials involved in a stage of the second-tier European Cup at the Rosa Khutor resort praised the men’s downhill run, noting the course was wide and safe, but said it currently lacked more technically challenging elements. That was due in part to the closure of the run’s upper echelons, which had accumulated snowdrifts of up to 3 meters in places, said international ski federation race director Markus Waldner.”

Going forward, Russian ski officials will coordinate with international skiers on ways to improve the technical challenges of the course, including making some of the runs narrower and steeper. According to Russian Olympic organizers, Sochi is about 40% through the building work needed to construct all Olympic facilities from scratch. This year is slated to be the most work-intensive in the run-up to 2014, with constructors targeting 70% by year-end.

[via: USA Today and Telegraph UK]

“The real-estate developer doesn’t seem to see the bullet holes in the cement wall behind him. Or the mortar-scarred apartment buildings. Or the half-bombed mansions where trees sprout through wallpapered living rooms. All the real-estate developer seems to see in Abkhazia, this breakaway territory wedged between Georgia and Russia along the Black Sea, is opportunity. “This place could be the Florida of the Caucasus,” Bruce Talley says, jabbing my arm with excitement as we walk between two filthy concrete hotels. Gorbachev, Khrushchev, and Stalin all built vacation homes in the area, their porches overlooking a string of empty beaches, turquoise water, and looming mountains that tinge peach at sunset. “This is the ideal subtropical paradise for 145 million Russians, and there is nowhere for them to stay.”

I’ve always thought of Abkhazia as the Russian equivalent of Cuba for Americans visiting Mexico & the Caribbean — a mysterious region that possesses untold cultural riches and natural beauty, yet is caught up in geopolitical ambitions. Just as it is theoretically possible for Americans to visit Cuba, it is also possible to visit Abkhazia — but it requires a bit of jumping through bureaucratic hoops and a sense of adventurous risk-taking. Finally, after 20 years of civil war and strife, Abkhazia is starting to open up to the world:

“As Abkhazia’s only ally in the region, Russia has been the first to take advantage. The former mayor of Moscow, Yuri Luzhkov, has bought beachfront property near Pitsunda, where he plans to develop a resort. The Russian government also plans to build a luxury resort, already nicknamed “Putin City,” sometime before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, just north of the Abkhaz border. [...]

Driving back down Abkhazia’s wending coast, Talley pointed to a series of decrepit, half-collapsed Soviet- era buildings. “I see a five-star hotel here,” he says, and “a family resort over there,” and “definitely something akin to a Club Med along the coast up here.” When a line of palm trees gives way to a view of the snowcapped Caucasus Mountains, Talley jabs my arm again. “Look! It’s like Big Sur meets Kauai!” And then he laughs. “Okay, so that’s a bit of a stretch. But just wait. You’ll see. This place will change so fast.”

For more on the future of Abkhazia, be sure to check out Bruce Talley’s blog, which details his adventures in Sochi and the Caucasus.

[via: Boca on the Black Sea]

“Beyond the Arctic Circle on a shelf of ice there lives a polar bear. In his home, everything is made out of ice and snow: his snow shower, his bed, his computer and even his weight-lifting equipment. The polar bear was brought up by Arctic explorers from a very early age. It was they who taught him skiing, speed-skating and curling. But above all the polar bear enjoyed riding sports sleighs. He became a real bobsleigh pro, while his fellow bears, along with the seals and fur seals, love watching his sporting achievements. These days they often set up bobsleigh competitions together and during the long Arctic nights, there’s never a dull moment.”

The Polar Bear mascot combines both the symbol of the Russian nation – the Bear – with the blue scarf that is the symbolic color of the Sochi Olympic Games. At the same time, the Polar Bear will help to raise awareness of the melting ice caps of the Arctic Circle. The Polar Bear is also a clever reference to Misha, the brown bear mascot from the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. Even today, walking around Moscow, you’ll see Misha in unexpected places. The souvenir vendors in front of Red Square are still selling Olympic buttons with Misha!

Who’s your choice to be the mascot for the Sochi 2014 Olympic Games?

[via: Sochi 2014]

“Everyone may associate it with snow, yet Russia has never been known for its high-quality skiing. Despite that, the Russians are trying to turn the town of Krasnaya Polyana, in the Caucasus, into an international-quality ski resort, using the 2014 Winter Olympics based around the Black Sea city of Sochi as a stimulus… The largely Soviet infrastructure around Krasnaya Polyana is being spruced up ahead of the Winter Games, with new roads, railways and ski lifts under construction, and a number of brand new ski runs to be cut out of the mountainside.

Tourist numbers – almost all of them Russians – in the wider Sochi area are up by 50% since the city was awarded the games in 2007; and a campaign is underway to market the area as a destination for top-quality skiing rather than just a low-budget alternative for those who can’t afford the ticket to Courchevel. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has even taken to the slopes several times in televised stunts to boost the region’s image among Russians, and has made the success of Sochi 2014 a personal priority.”

Perhaps the most exciting of the new ski areas in Sochi is Rosa Khutor, a brand new set of Olympic-quality ski runs that stretch out over 80 kilometers. On one hand, these new ski areas in and around Sochi offer Alpine-like skiing conditions. On the other hand, there are still significant concerns about infrastructure and access. My gut feeling is that where there’s a will, there’s a way. There’s just too much oil & gas money floating around Sochi not to make these new resorts a success. One early indicator will be how well Rosa Khutor handles the Alpine Ski European Cup this February.

Via: Monocle Alpino

“Ski buffs don’t usually think of Soviet Georgia when planning their next backcountry outing. But some ambitious plans in the Caucasus are trying to change that fast. Tucked between the Black and Caspian seas and smattered with mountains, Georgia has the kind of terrain adventurous skiers yearn for: peaks reaching 16,000 feet, deep valleys and largely untouched slopes. Known best for spectacular off-piste and heli-skiing, Bakuriani and Gudauri — each a short drive from Tbilisi — saw 30,000 visitors in 2009 and are expanding fast.

And now, in efforts spearheaded by the Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, the ski-resort bug is spreading even further. In Mestia, the first groomed slopes of a new resort opened in December. Also earmarked as a winter hot spot is Goderdzi pass, which can have snow coverage six months a year.”

Sochi is just about as close as you can get to “Soviet Georgia,” so it’s pretty exciting that winter sports enthusiasts may be packing off for a part of the world that has been, as of yet, relatively undiscovered. Once they’ve experienced Georgia, there’s no reason why these avid skiers won’t want to try their luck in the Western Caucasus Mountains. Are we on the cusp of experiencing a rebirth and rediscovery of the Caucasus Mountains as a “rustic ski wonderland”?

via: New York Times

via: Extreme Holidays in Sochi

“In 1934 the Moscow magazine Ogonyok published a 218-page book full of color illustrations entitled Soviet Sub-Tropics, devoted to the Southern borderlands of the Soviet Union and the Transcaucasus in particular. The famous Soviet journalist Mikhail Koltsov edited the book and some of the best writers of the day contributed to it. Poems by the Georgian poets Titsian Tabidze and Simon Chikovani were given in Russian translations by Boris Pasternak.

The tone of the book is aggressively celebratory, taking its cue from Stalin, who had recently declared, “Life has got better, life has got more cheerful.” Newly liberated women in Muslim Ajaria sort through overflowing boxes of tangerines. Happy workers are shown vacationing in Abkhazia. The final picture in the book is what must have been the nearest thing to an erotic photograph in the Soviet Union of 1934: on a beach a young woman in a swimming costume with a bare midriff throws out her arms with delight as an adoring man looks up at her. The caption reads, “It’s a good life in our country!”

The leaders of the Soviet Union even created a new “Department of Sub-Tropical Cultures,” which took as its ideological task promoting the idea of a “Soviet Florida.”

image: Washington Post

“Situated on the coastline of the Black Sea, against the backdrop of the Caucasus Mountains, Sochi is Russia’s most famous resort town. Leaders from Stalin to Putin have vacationed in Sochi, which is scheduled to host the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.”

As a sidenote: Khromchenko was the voice of Meryl Streep’s character in the Russian version of The Devil Wears Prada.

Via: Russian Style