Greek Alpine skier Giannis Antoniou was the first to carry the Olympic torch at the beginning of its 123-day relay from Greece to Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. (Flicker/International Olympic Committee)
Security in and around Sochi, the site of the 2014 Winter Olympics, has been heightened and tightened as part of a Russian government effort to ensure safety for the games.
Emergency Services Minister Vladimir Puchkov told Russian news agencies: "Starting January 7, all units guaranteeing the safety of Games guests and participants are entering combat alert, all venues will be sealed off, and a satellite monitoring system will be activated" and that "All security issues for the Winter Olympics are being solved at the highest international level."
Sochi, one of the largest Russian municipalities, is now divided into "forbidden" and "controlled" zones. Securing the Olympic facilities is made more difficult by their location; some Olympic facilities are located by the seashore and others are located thirty miles away in the Caucasus Mountains. Cars without local license plates or special permits are not allowed to enter Sochi, and no weapons or explosives may be sold in Sochi.
More than 30,000 police and Ministry of Interior troops are being deployed to secure Sochi.
The most obvious threat to the Olympics comes from Islamist militants, particularly Chechen rebel leader Doku Umarov who publicly threatened the Winter Olympics in a video posted on-line on July 3, 2013.
In it, he said his "mujahedeen are obliged to not permit it" and explained why he was targeting Sochi, the site of a 19th century Russian conquest that slaughtered Muslims. "They plan to hold the Olympics on the bones of our ancestors, on the bones of many, many dead Muslims, buried on the territory of our land on the Black Sea."
Russian authorities have been on guard following two suicide bombings in the Russian city of Volgograd, 400 miles from Sochi, in late December 2013 that killed at least 34 people.
[Wall Street Journal]
[BBC]
[New York Times]
