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OLYMPICS WEBSITE ENDORSES GREATER RUSSIA
By Joshua Keating
Foreign Policy
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/25/olympics_website_endorses_greater_russia
July 25 2012
RFE/RL catches a boo-boo on the London Olympics website's listings
for some members of the Russian team:
The entry for judo fighter Arsen Galstyan lists his place and date
of birth as "Armenia (RUS)" in 1989, while boxer David Ayrapetyan is
listed as having been born in "Baku (RUS)" six years earlier.
Kazakhstan and Tajikistan were Soviet republics back when boxer Sergei
Vodopiyanov and wrestler Khasan Baroev were born in the 1980s.
But the now independent countries might be surprised to see the
birthplaces of these athletes listed as "Kazakhstan Region (RUS)"
and "Dushanbe (RUS)."
But perhaps the most contentious entries are for two wrestlers from
the Caucasus. Denis Tsargush, the site says, hails from "Gudauta
(RUS)" -- a city in Abkhazia, the Georgian breakaway republic that
Russia and a handful of other nations recognize as independent. And
Besik Kudukhov was born in "Yuzhnaya Osetia (RUS)" -- that's Georgia's
other breakaway republic, South Ossetia, that Moscow also recognized
as an independent state after a brief war with Georgia in 2008.
It seems like a simple "SOV" designation could solve the problem.
By Joshua Keating
Foreign Policy
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/07/25/olympics_website_endorses_greater_russia
July 25 2012
RFE/RL catches a boo-boo on the London Olympics website's listings
for some members of the Russian team:
The entry for judo fighter Arsen Galstyan lists his place and date
of birth as "Armenia (RUS)" in 1989, while boxer David Ayrapetyan is
listed as having been born in "Baku (RUS)" six years earlier.
Kazakhstan and Tajikistan were Soviet republics back when boxer Sergei
Vodopiyanov and wrestler Khasan Baroev were born in the 1980s.
But the now independent countries might be surprised to see the
birthplaces of these athletes listed as "Kazakhstan Region (RUS)"
and "Dushanbe (RUS)."
But perhaps the most contentious entries are for two wrestlers from
the Caucasus. Denis Tsargush, the site says, hails from "Gudauta
(RUS)" -- a city in Abkhazia, the Georgian breakaway republic that
Russia and a handful of other nations recognize as independent. And
Besik Kudukhov was born in "Yuzhnaya Osetia (RUS)" -- that's Georgia's
other breakaway republic, South Ossetia, that Moscow also recognized
as an independent state after a brief war with Georgia in 2008.
It seems like a simple "SOV" designation could solve the problem.