This is the list of Sochi.* domains that are still available for registration.

I made this list back when news were hit by someone trying to sell sochi.info for 3,000,000€ – see my July post on Sochi domains (btw, the new price is $630,000 :)). I didn’t publish this post back then ’cause while I was making I thought it’d be a good idea to register a couple for myself first – I did so, I registered two… and ran out of money – one probably will become available next year :) . Anyways, today Russian media was hit by news that olimpic-sochi.ru was sold for 1.8 million dollars, and sochi.pro for $300,000 – both “news”, in my opinion, are total bull… I don’t know how this even makes it to the news sites.

So, below is the list I compiled – it’s current as of October 29, 2007. Some domains are no longer available sine I made the original list, those are marked by an asterix(*). But there still are a few interesting ones available. I can see people want to use .bi, .bj (adult), .cd (music), .pr (public relations).

This is NOT a complete ccTLD list, as many countries require local residency or business registration in the country to register a domain in their zone. However, for some of those you may be able to find agencies that will register it for you through their partners in those countries (for higher price, of course). The list below includes a few of those, but most domains on the list can be registered by any individual or company. Also, a couple of ccTLDs I threw out as I couldn’t find registrars for them, and there could be some that I don’t know about (the original list was taken from Wikipedia).

So, here is the list of “sochi” domains as of October 27, 2007: Read the rest of this entry »

Sochi joins The Freeride World Tour! So, the five events are:

• Nissan Mammoth Challenge (USA), 22 to 26 January
• Nissan Caucasus Classic in Sochi (RUS), 31 January to 5 February
• Swatch O’Neill Big Mountain Pro, a mobile event in the Alps from 24 February to 2 March
• Nissan Freeride de Tignes (FRA), 9 to 12 March
• Nissan O’Neill Xtreme in Verbier from 14 to 23 March

Mayor of Erevan – the capital of Armenia – Ervand Zakharyan has announced today that Sochi and Erevan will sign document in November or December making Sochi and Erevan sister cities (aka twin towns or brother cities). Currently almost all Sochi’s sister cities are major resort centers in the countires where they are located. Erevan is not, however large number of Sochi residents are ethnic armenians, and this move makes a lot of sense.

Sochi’s current sister cities:

Cheltenham, UK (since 1959)
Menton, France (since 1966)
Rimini, Italy (since 1977)
Espoo, Finland (since 1989)
Long Beach, USA (since 1990)
Trabzon, Turkey (since 1991)
Pärnu, Estonia (since 1994)
Weihai, China (since 1996)
Volos, Greece (since 2007)

Recently a new free online audio language learning service was launched. It has yummy name and provides lessons for several popular languages, including Russian.  There are many websites online that teach Russian language, this one by far the best one I’ve seen. In fact I’m writing about it only because I was impressed with it so much! It’s simple, has clean and intuitive interface, the quality of learning material and quality of audio is great, there’s a lot of the materials, and it’s free!

The course is for the beginners, and if you ever flirted with the idea of learning some Russian head on to the TryMango.com and give it a shot. The sign up process is painless, it doesn’t require activation via email, and you don’t even need a password!

There are 100 lessons available, and all audio material is done by native speakers. The Russian course is Read the rest of this entry »

This is old news, but I didn’t even know, that google.ru had logo to honour Sochi’s Olympic bid win… cool! : )

The Organizing Committee for the XXII Olympic Winter Games and XI Paralympic Winter Games of 2014 in Sochi has officially been formed today. It will be responsible for the preparation and organization of the Olympic Games, and will report to the International Olympic Committee.

As was expected, Dmitry Chernyshenko is appointed chief executive officer of the organizing committee, and the Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov is appointed head of supervisory board.

The Organizing Committee will be ensuring that Read the rest of this entry »

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that laws pertaining to the future winter Olympic Games in Sochi must be passed before the end of 2007.

“One of the primary tasks is to devise proper regulations. The necessary Olympic laws must be passed before the end of this year,” Putin said at a session of the Presidential Council for Physical Education, Sports and preparations for the Olympic Games on Tuesday.

The Russian government and the presidential administration must include Sochi and Krasnodar representatives in the working group preparing these laws “so that all interests of the residents of these areas are taken into account,” Putin said.

Source: Interfax

So, as I mentioned in my previous post I recently spent two weeks in Sochi. Actually, I spent a little less there, as I went to Nebug, a small town north of Sochi, for a couple of days with my friends.

Since I came back everyone, who heard about Sochi’s Olympic future, keeps asking me what’s being done for the Olympics, what has changed – but what could change in two month?! Not much. Nothing, in fact, changed so far. We arrived to the same old airport terminal, no major constructions throughout the city, though I haven’t visited Krasnaya Polyana this time, where I hear some road constructions are on the way.

Well, some thing have changed, but not related to the Olympic bid win. New night clubs opened, such as “Platforma” club in the sea, which instantly overtook a crown from club “Malibu” as most popular open-air club in Sochi. Many places with beautiful landscaping jobs now have green highlights at night – this makes everything look beautiful. The public transportation problem as bad ad ever, and is worsened by the increasing amount of traffic in the city. At times the traffic in Sochi is as bad as it is in Moscow or Manhattan during peak hours. I almost missed my flight to Moscow sitting in the traffic. Of course, this goes back to the “roads problem” that our government promises to fix by the Olympics.

While I was there, the preparations to host the The Sixth International Investment Forum and following visits by Prime Minister of Spain Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and the President of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge were on the way. This caused some roads to be closed, which just added problems for drivers in Sochi, and subsequently increased taxi ride prices for the rest.

One major change, however, did take place – Read the rest of this entry »

SOCHI, Russia (Reuters) – Palm trees and sunbathing holidaymakers surrounded International Olympic Committee (IOC) chief Jacques Rogge on his first visit to the city that will host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

It was hard, perhaps, to picture biathlon and cross-country skiing taking place here but Rogge, by his own admission, was taken aback by the natural beauty of the area and the warm hospitality of the people.

“I am not used to having this kind of weather at a Winter Olympic city,” Rogge told Reuters in an interview at a seaside restaurant during his one-day trip to this Black Sea resort last week at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Still, this is a lovely place and I must say that holding the Winter Games in Sochi is a good idea.”

IOC executive director Gilbert Felli and Alpine skiing great Jean-Claude Killy, who accompanied Rogge on his visit, were equally impressed.

“The mountains are majestic, with a proper set-up you can make a great downhill course, very demanding,” said Killy, who won all three men’s Alpine skiing gold medals on offer at the 1968 Grenoble Olympics.

Regarded by some Olympic experts as rank outsiders, Sochi beat South Korea’s Pyeongchang and Austria’s Salzburg at the IOC session in Guatemala in July for the right to stage sport’s major winter festival.

Read the rest of this article at Reuters website »

IOC President Jacques Rogge was told during an informal meeting with President Vladimir Putin earlier today, that Dmitry Chernyshenko is to be appointed as the CEO of the Sochi 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Organizing Committee.

Commenting on the news, Chernyshenko said:

“Managing the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games Organizing Committee is a great honor and responsibility for me. In the next 7 years we have to create the best possible conditions for hosting the Games at the highest level. To this end we have formed the most effective project management structure for achieving this result. Our cooperation with the IOC and our Games preparation process had not stopped for a minute since Sochi’s victory in Guatemala. Since then, we have been building upon the experience and international contacts gained during the bidding process to ensure we meet and exceed the highest standards of the Olympic Movement.”

As a part of the meeting, Vice-premier Alexander Zhukov was named as the Head of Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee’s Supervisory Board, while Semen Vainshtok was named as the Head of State Corporation responsible for development of infrastructure and Olympic construction.

The official announcement of the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee’s senior management will be made next week at the meeting of the President’s Council on physical culture, sport and 2014 Olympic and Paralympic Games preparation. The council will include premier minister Viktor Zubkov, vice-prime minister Zhukov, Minister of Regional Development Kozak, Veinshtock, Minister of Finances, First Vice-premier Kudrin, businessman Vladimir Potanin, President of the Russian Olympic Committee Leonid Tyagachev, Minister of Sport Vyacheslav Fetisov, representatives of Sochi City and Krasnodar region administration. Dmitry Chernyshenko is also to be announced as Secretary General of this council.

Sochi2014.com press release