Sochi 2014 chief promises safest Olympics

Sochi - Sochi 2014 organisers have issued unequivocal security assurances in the wake of the deadly Boston Marathon bombings, with the chief organiser promising the safest Games in history.

Russia is to beef up security in the Black Sea resort as of June 1 this year in the wake of Monday’s terrorist attacks that killed three people and injured more than 170.

“Those who will be at the Olympic Games in Sochi should know this: We will provide them with security. The security system for the Games was devised with the participation of leading international experts. It conforms to the security demands of an event of this magnitude and has been repeatedly checked at test competitions and other events,” CEO of the organising committee Dmitry Chernyshenko said Wednesday.

Thursday will see the first games in the Under-18 World Hockey Championships, the first test event for the Bolshoi Ice Dome and Shayba Arena, another dry-run for security operations ahead of the Olympics.

“We’ll test this system yet again so that the Olympic Games in Sochi become the safest in history,” Chernyshenko said.

Olympic host city Sochi is on the other side of the Caucasus mountain range from the republic of Dagestan, the source of the most large-scale terrorist activity in Russia over the last decade.

Russia is yet to uproot an entrenched Islamist insurgency in Dagestan and neighbouring republics that spread through the mainly Muslim North Caucasus region after two separatist conflicts in Chechnya.

–IANS/RIA Novosti

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