International contest of A.S.Makarenko (Makarenko was great Russian teacher and writer) for educational institutions, which each year takes place in a different city, is starting in Sochi on April 1st, and will bring together student teams from 40 Russian regions. During the event, Russia’s biggest publishers will present new educational literature. Guest list includes famous Russian academicians, doctors, and professors. Also, official from Italian embassy in Russia, Emiliano Mettini, will talk about education experiences in Italy.

“Sibir” Airlines (S7 Airlines) stopped cheap tickets sales for flights from Moscow to Sochi. During last month tickets were sold for $12 (300rub; not including airport fees) if tickets are puchased 30 days in advance, and for $35 (900rub) if puchased 14 days in advance. Now both of these prices are canceled, and the ticket price is $84 plus $28 of airport fees.

This was an experimental action by S7 (these prices were also introduced to two other cities), and after analyzing the results “Sibir” will make a decision on weather to continue similar actions.

Real Estate Krasnodar reports on Carrefour’s plans in Russia.

You can read the full article on Real Estate Krasnodar blog »

«Dolmens are a type of single-chamber megalithic tomb, usually consisting of three or more upright stones (megaliths) supporting a large flat horizontal capstone (table). Dolmens were usually covered with earth or smaller stones to form a barrow, though in many cases that covering has weathered away, leaving only the stone ‘skeleton’ of the burial mound intact.»
– Wikipedia

The monuments date between the end of the 4th millennium and the beginning of the 2nd millennium B.C. — that’s older that Pyramids of Egypt! Read the rest of this entry »

Rosprirodnadzor — Russian federal service in supervision of natural resource use — will conduct examination of Sochi’s Federal Targeted Program which was designed to turn Sochi into true year-round resort by year 2014. The commission of experts will include scientists and representatives from independent ecological organizations.

Here are some photos from the Nike Free Mountain 2007 skiing and snowboarding competition that took place in Krasnaya Polyana, Sochi on March 1-3.

See more larger pictures: »

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Association members meet regularly with people who share a strong interest in learning about Russian Federation, our Sister City Sochi, and in promoting better ties between the two great cities and nations on a social, cultural and business level.

Members gain access to the Association’s established links to Sochi and elsewhere, thus accelerating their prospects in Russian Federation and Long Beach on a social, cultural, educational and business level.

Everyone is invited to participate in a variety of business, cultural, educational and social programs, all of which contribute towards fulfilling individual and Associate goals. Members also have opportunities to meet with delegations of Russian officials who visit Long Beach and other California locations.

Members receive discounted fares on occasional, Association-sponsored group trips and trade visits to Sochi and other Russian Federation locations.

JOIN TOADY!

I haven’t had a chance to write more Sochi news as im working to implement a new feature for my other website. But here a quick run down on what interesting had been happening in Sochi:

• Abkhazia asks for direct postal services from Russia. Because Russia officially recognizes Abkhazia as part or Georgia, all mail from Russia to Abkhazia goes through Georgia. Even from Sochi, which borders Abkhazia. Georgia, in turn, uses it as a pressure point on Abkhazia, which is virtually independent from Georgia since 1993. This results in people of Abkhazia asking others to send correspondence to Sochi’s post offices, and then they to commute to Sochi to pick it up.
• Sochi officials will lobby to get some of the Olympic projects construction contracts to local companies.
• Residents of Long Beach (CA), USA – Sochi’s twin city since 1990 – support Sochi 2014 bid.
• «Development of telecommunications in Russia» all-russian forum is scheduled to take place in Sochi in April.
• «Banks of Russia – 21st century» international forum is scheduled to take place in Sochi in September.
• Archeologists find ancient writings on Sochi’s dolmens

Governor of Krasnodar Krai Alexandr Tkachev signed seven deals worth more than €950 million during the first day of the international real estate summit in Cannes — MIPIM-2007, reports REGNUM information agency. Some of those deals are investments in Sochi, for new multifunctional centers and a hotel complex. Krasnodar Region’s exhibition os one of the largest on the event. This year they showcase around 1 400 projects worth €47 billion, including new projects in newly established special economic tourism and recreational zones and Olympic projects in Sochi. One hundred presented Sochi projects include hotels, sport structures, mountain resorts, and a golf club.

Meanwhile, Russian minister of economic development German Gref, announced that the price of the federal program of making Sochi into year-round resort may go up due to the increased price of some projects, and that Russian government will increase its funding. These money will go into infrastructure projects, he clarified. The new numbers will be known in the end of this year. Just to remind you, currently $12 billion is planned to be invested in this program, $7.5 billion of which will be invested by the government.

61% or Russians believe Sochi has better chances to win 2014 Olympics bid then its competitors, Salzburg and PyeongChang. 11% believe in Salzburg’s chances, and 5% in PyeongChang’s. This was revealed during most recent survey by the All-Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM). Same survey showed that 81% of Russians thinks that it is important that 2014 Olympics will take place in Sochi, 43% of which think its “very important”, and 38% think its “rather important”.

Last year’s survey showed that only 45% of Russians believed in Sochi’s chances.

The finals of the international Missis World 2007 pageant took place tonight in «Zimny» Theater in Sochi, Russia. And here are the results!

Missis World 2007: Mrs. America – Diane Tucker
Missis Benevolence: Mrs. Canada – Mai-Lea Dejong
Missis Fitness: Mrs. Russia – Maria Gufronova
Best Dress: Mrs. France – Rejane Klein Maurer

Video 

I found three video clips on different Russian news sites. All three are different, some are from before the event, some are videos of the event itself. But they all have Russian narration. If you want to see the picture, here’s the list with instructions. Also, below I’m posting a few screenshots from two of those clips. Tip: if the playback is faster then the download and the video is jerking, press pause button after playback begun, and give it a little time to buffer data up; then press play button again to watch the video.

Screnshots

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These are just photos from the Mrs World website, they are not from Zimny Theater. If I find photos from the event in Sochi I’ll post ’em here too. Update: event photos and links to videos in the new post.

Missis World 2007

Mrs. America – Diane Tucker

Missis Benevolence

Mrs. Canada – Mai-Lea Dejong

Missis Fitness

Mrs. Russia – Maria Gufronova

Best dress

Mrs. France – Rejane Klein Maurer

Photos (c) MrsWorld.com

The first part of Missis World contest was actually run last night in «Zhemchuzhyna» hotel. Out of thirty ladies that reached this stage only ten will compete in the final stage tomorrow in «Zimy» Theater. Their names are already known, but they are kept secret by the organizers.

The stage that ran last nigh included interview contest (called “Interview” :) and accounted for 50% of the score), and swimsuit (25% of the score) and evening dress (25% of the score) contests.

Here are three photos from sochi-news.ru

I also found decent photos from last year’s Missis Wold 2006 event held in St. Petersburg.

Rescue efforts restarted monday morning, but were later stopped due to the high risk of new avalanche in the area. The search is going on for three people apparently sighted by witnesses. But nobody was reported missing yet, all hotels in the area are being checked to see if anyone’s missing.

A group of at least four people was caught under avalanche today in Krasnaya Polyana. Rescue group could reach the place of the accident 30 minutes later and recovered ten years old child from under the snow, but doctors couldn’t save his life and he died another half hour later. The search for the remaining three persons continued until night, and will resume tomorrow morning. Additional groups of rescue workers from Adygea republic (10 people) and Krasnodar Krai (46 people) are coming to join Sochi rescuers (37 rescue workers from Krasnaya Polyana and a group of rescue workers from Sochi).

The accident occurred in the top area of ski-lifts operated by «Alpika Service» resort on Salymovsky Tsyrk mountain at 15:10 local time.

I hope they can save those people.

I guess this also means we’ll probably hear soon new accusations from the opponents of the Sochi’s Olympic bid and new government’s assurances to provide safety.