Georgia conflict haunts Russia's Olympic dream

By Christian Lowe

ADLER, Russia (Reuters) - The pretty spot where Russia will host the opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics is on the Black Sea, framed by the Caucasus mountains. It is also just a 15-minute drive from a potential war zone.

Winning the right to host the games in its southern city of Sochi was a matter of intense national pride for Russia, but the event risks being blighted by a dispute over Abkhazia, a breakaway region of Georgia uncomfortably close to Sochi.

Georgia -- backed by the European Union and the United States -- accuses Moscow of trying to annex Abkhazia and says the issue could haunt the Sochi Games in the same way that this summer's Beijing Olympics is dogged by questions over Tibet and China's record on human rights.

Russia is already under fire from Western states for establishing semi-official links to a breakaway region that the rest of the world does not recognise. Georgia, once part of the Soviet Union, says Moscow has no right to interfere in Abkhazia.

The dispute has global implications as Georgia is a vital link in a Washington-endorsed oil export corridor from the Caspian Sea.

And now the Winter Games have been added to the volatile mix: Olympic organisers plan to use construction materials and labour from Abkhazia, a picturesque region about half the size of Wales, to build the Olympic venues in Sochi.

"Our position is very clear: the use of any part of our territory is illegal," Kakha Lomaia, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, told Reuters.

"Events in Tibet have demonstrated that the whole world was paying attention to how the policy of an Olympic host country lives up to the ideals of the Olympic movement," he said.