2014 Winter Games: Is Sochi ready?

The Olympic Winter Games open this week, but many concerns remain about Sochi's infrastructure and security.

From the Washington Post:

Concern about potential attacks on the Winter Games, which will run from Feb. 7 to Feb. 23, has heightened in the wake of three suicide bombings since Oct. 15 that killed more than 30 people in the city of Volgograd, roughly 500 miles from Sochi. Earlier this month reports emerged about the possible presence of female "black widow" suicide bombers in Sochi, though the reports, which U.S. officials learned of through the media, have not been corroborated.

The 2014 Olympics are being held within 300 miles of Russia's volatile North Caucasus region, a center of Islamist extremist activity, where insurgents have threatened attacks on the Games for years.

Last week the U.S. Olympic Committee sent a travel memo to athletes cautioning against wearing conspicuous Team USA gear outside the secure Olympic compound because it "may put your personal safety at greater risk."

The United States is prepared for an attack that would require Americans to leave Olympic Park, according to CNN.

"The U.S. military will have up to two warships and several transport aircraft on standby under a contingency plan to help evacuate American officials and athletes from the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, if ordered," wrote Barbara Starr.

On The Daily Circuit, we discuss the $50 billion gamble Russia is taking, and whether the potential rewards measure up to the risks.

LEARN MORE ABOUT RUSSIA'S OLYMPIC READINESS:

• Sochi says goodbye to its Soviet era and hello to a modern Olympics
A disturbing number of empty skyscrapers and shopping centers now festoon Sochi like high-end ghost towns. If these buildings were started in the hopes of attracting international tenants thanks to the Olympics, then they've horribly missed their deadline. Some of the structures may have simply had bad financing, but others, the locals tell me, are built on areas where the geology can't actually support tall buildings. Many are illegal above a certain height. And yet, city officials allowed them to be built (or half-built). Now they sit as monuments to the unseen forces — greed, corruption, bad planning, and a shady economy — that allowed them to rise in the first place. (The World)

• Sochi from the sky: Olympic Park and elsewhere (Baltimore Sun)

• How safe is Sochi? Travelers weigh their options as Olympics near "The threats have been backed up with incidents, with attacks," said Carl Herron, a former crisis response agent for the FBI who was at the London and Turin Olympics. "The percentage of something happening from here on is probably high. It can happen two days before the Olympics start, or it can happen today, so that really escalates the intensity of the security apparatus." (CNN)