This report will focus on security and human rights issues. Other issues, such as environmental concerns or those associated with the preparations of the U.S. athletes, are not addressed. In July, 2007 the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced that Sochi, Russia had been selected as the host city for the XXII Olympic Winter Games. The Games, which will be held February 7-23, 2014, are the first to be hosted by Russia as a successor state to the former Soviet Union. It is expected that approximately 2,900 athletes from some 88 countries will participate in 15 Olympic Games disciplines at two main locations: a coastal cluster along the Black Sea and a mountain cluster in the Krasnaya Polyana mountains. (See Figure 1 .) Previously, Moscow had hosted Olympic Summer Games in 1980. Moscow had been a candidate city for the 1976 and 2012 Summer Olympics, but was not selected for either of those games. Security is one of the evaluation factors in the selection of a city to host either the winter or summer Olympic Games. Stage I of the selection process concludes with the IOC's acceptance of three cities as candidate cities. The three candidate cities for 2014—Pyeongchang, South Korea; Salzburg, Austria; and Sochi, Russia—were required to complete the IOC's candidature questionnaire and obtain the required guarantees. Theme 12 of the questionnaire involved security and included 15 sets of questions; a table for describing the experience of a candidate city (and its region and nation) in organizing security for major international events; and two security guarantees. Under the latter guarantees, "the highest government authority," as well as relevant local officials, pledge "the safety and the peaceful celebration of the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games." The IOC Evaluation Commission, which is appointed by the President of the IOC, reviewed the candidate cities' completed questionnaires and related materials and issued a report to the IOC. The IOC 2014 Evaluation Commission Report described each candidate city's plans for hosting the 2014 games. Regarding Sochi's bid and the subject of security, the commission noted that the "Government of the Russian Federation ... guaranteed that it would bear the full responsibility and cost of security for the preparation and staging of the Olympic and Paralympic Games." The IOC Evaluation Commission also commented that the Russian police force has "excellent experience in hosting major international and sports events," including in Sochi. The IOC called for Russia to set up an Olympic Security Steering Committee at ministerial level to provide strategic policy and guidance and an Olympic Security Task Force, supported by a "dedicated multi-agency Olympic Security Coordination Center," to be established for security planning and delivery. Another aspect of the IOC's 2014 Candidature Procedure and Questionnaire involves the recommitment of the prospective hosts to the organization's Code of Ethics. The code's preamble states, in part, that the Olympic parties shall uphold the Olympic Charter and in particular its fundamental principles. The Olympic Charter contains seven fundamental principles of the Olympics. Two principles address discrimination. Principle 4 notes that "[t]he practice of sport is a human right. Every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind and in the Olympic spirit, which requires mutual understanding with a spirit of friendship, solidarity and fair play." Principle 6 reads as follows: "Any form of discrimination with regard to a country or a person on grounds of race, religion, politics, gender, or otherwise is incompatible with belonging to the Olympic Movement." In his personal appeal in early July 2007 for the IOC to permit Russia to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, President Putin pledged that Russia would ensure that athletes and visitors have as safe and pleasant a stay as possible. As preparations for the Games were being finalized, President Putin emphasized on January 17, 2014, that the Games would display Russia's "new face and its possibilities," demonstrate that the country can successfully hold such an event, show that it has improved its economic and military power and prowess in sports, and boost its development and international relations. He argued that the major reasons for hosting the Olympics in Sochi included developing the southern area as a resort for foreign visitors and vacationing Russians (so they would not need to travel abroad); building training facilities for Russian athletes to replace those lost after the breakup of the Soviet Union; and encouraging sports and health among Russians. The threat of terrorism has been an increasing concern at Olympic Games. Three Olympic Games have been the target of terrorist actions, the most deadly of which occurred in1972, at the Summer Games in Munich, when members of the Palestinian group Black September killed two members of the Israeli Olympic team and took nine others hostage. The remaining hostages were subsequently killed during a clash between the terrorists and law enforcement authorities. In 1992, a Basque separatist group threatened an attack on the Barcelona Summer Games, but it never materialized. The Centennial Olympic Park, a venue at the 1996 Atlanta Games, was the site of a bombing that killed one person and injured 100. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union and the formation of Russia, ethnic conflict has been most intensive in the North Caucasus area, the site of the Sochi Olympics. Most of this violence has taken place during two active conflicts in Chechnya in 1994-1996 and 1999-2003, although since then low-level insurgency has continued throughout the North Caucasus and occasionally elsewhere in Russia. Krasnoyarsk Kray, where Sochi is located, was not a battleground during the Chechnya conflicts, but has suffered from some terrorist attacks. According to the U.S. government's Open Source Center, there were 5,472 terrorist incidents in Russia over the past five years, averaging about 2-3 per day, with a decline from 1,381 in 2009 to 741 in 2013. Over this period, 1,672 security personnel and civilians were killed, along with 1,921 suspected terrorists. The bulk of these incidents and deaths were in the North Caucasus, and Russia's Dagestan republic has become a locus of incidents and deaths, as well as a source of attacks in other areas of Russia (see below). Sochi was historically the capital of an area populated by the Circassians (encompassing the Adyghes, Kabardians, Shapsugs, and Cherkess), peoples of the North Caucasus who speak dialects of the Circassian language. Most Circassians are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi school. In the mid-19 th century, Russia conquered the area and drove out most of the Circassians, killing hundreds of thousands, according to some accounts. According to the 2010 Russia census, there are about 718,000 Circassians, most residing in the North Caucasian Kabardino-Balkaria and Karachay-Cherkess republics and the Adyghe republic, an enclave in southern Krasnodar Kray, near Sochi. The January 10, 2014, U.S. travel alert (updated on January 24) warns that past terrorist incidents have been broad in range and scope over the past fifteen years, taking place at Russian government buildings, airports, hotels, tourist sites, markets, entertainment venues, schools, and residential complexes. There also have been large-scale attacks on public transportation including subways, buses, trains, and scheduled commercial flights. Although the focus here is on possible terrorist threats to U.S. athletes and visitors, the U.S. travel alert points out that besides terrorist threats, organized crime, protests, and other civil disorders may pose threats. Russian officials have stated for several years that there are about 500-1,000 terrorists in the North Caucasus area. Many of these are gathered together in several dozen small groups, most of which are linked to some degree to Chechen terrorist Doku Umarov, the head of the self-proclaimed Caucasus Emirate. Concerns about terrorism related to the Olympic Games were heightened in July 2013, when Umarov called for renewed attacks against civilian targets throughout Russia (he ostensibly had called off attacks in February 2012 just before the presidential election in Russia) and for jihad against the Sochi Olympics. In December 2013, another shadowy group threatened cyber warfare against the Olympic Games for defiling the Circassian homeland. It is uncertain to what extent recent terrorist incidents in the North Caucasus are related to Circassian interests; several prominent Circassian organizations have publicly foresworn violence. Among recent terrorist incidents, On May 10, 2012, Russia's National Anti-Terrorism Committee—NAK; an interagency coordinating and advisory body—announced that Russian and Abkhazian security agents had uncovered a plot by Umarov to launch a large-scale attack at the planned 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Several large stashes of grenade launchers, surface to air missiles, mines, and other weaponry were discovered in Abkhazia (a breakaway region of Georgia bordering the North Caucasus, and recognized as independent by Russia). On October 21, 2013, a female suicide bomber blew up a bus in Volgograd, Russia, in the Southern Federal District which includes Sochi, resulting in seven deaths and over three dozen injuries. Volgograd is about 430 miles northeast of Sochi and is a transportation hub between Moscow and southern Russia, leading to added speculation that the attacks were aimed against the Sochi Olympics. Russian media linked the bomber to the Dagestan jamaat (organization or front), linked to the Caucasus Emirate. This was the first operation by the jamaat since a bombing at Moscow's Domodedovo Airport in January 2011. In mid-November 2013, Russian officials reported that police in Dagestan had killed the bomber's husband and others reputedly involved in the bombing. (See Figure 2 .)