1. Controversy
Security Rights by Miaa Cheeks
Sochi has gotten many threats from multiple sources. According to CNN they said that “Russia has drafted 37,000 police and security officers to handle security in Sochi, but has not done much to assuage fears.” Even the teams are starting to get worried. According to Cnn “The U.S. ski and snowboarding team has hired a private security firm, Global Rescue, to provide protection.
Ensuring the security of the Games has been a superior consideration since Sochi was chosen in
2007, and such concerns have influenced the layout and design of facilities built for the Games. Under a December 2007 law and an August 2013 presidential decree, a broad “controlled” security zone around the Olympics site was established.
Extra inspections and restrictions on individuals and transport vehicles entering and leaving this zone, including air traffic, are authorized beginning in early January 2014. The inspection of mail also is mandated. Along with the Olympics facilities, enhanced security measures are put in place at bridges, railway tunnels, power facilities and grids, schools, hospitals, hotels, restaurants and stores.
In addition, sales of firearms and dual use chemicals and other items are banned. Vehicles without special registration are not permitted to enter the zone, and local car owners generally are asked not to drive and to take their cars to parking lots 50 miles from Sochi. Even tighter security pertains for screening Olympic visitors and support personnel at Olympic venues.
An additional “prohibited zone” bans most access to the area inside Russia’s border with
Georgia’s breakaway Abkhazia, to airspace and waters near the Olympics site, and to a national park.
The zones stretch approximately 60 miles along the Black Sea coast and up to 24 miles inland.
The inter­agency “Operational Headquarters” providing security includes the Federal Security Service (FSB) as the lead agency, the Interior (police) Ministry, the Emergencies Ministry, the Defense Ministry and other bodies.
Military personnel in the zone are in combat readiness. According to reports, among the tens of thousands of forces providing security (variously stated by Russian officials to number up to 100,000) are 22,000 military troops using 2,000 vehicles and 72 aircraft, 40,000 police, 8,900
Emergency Ministry personnel with 1,600 vehicles, and an unreported number of FSB personnel. To assist police in providing security, several hundred Cossacks (traditional militia forces) are deployed. According to some estimates, the number of Russian security personnel deployed at the Games is much greater than that provided for the team.

2. Opening Ceremony The Start of the Olympics­2014 by Miaa Cheeks
The opening ceremony of the 2014 Winter Olympics took place at the Fisht Olympic Stadium in Sochi, Russia, on 7 February 2014. It began at 7:30 and finished at 11:00. It was filmed and produced by OBS and Russian host broadcaster VGTRK. This was the first Winter Olympics and first Olympic
Games opening ceremony under the IOC presidency of Thomas Bach. The Games were officially opened by President Vladimir Putin. An audience of 40,000 were in attendance at the stadium with an estimated 2,000 performers. In my opinion I liked the
Opening Ceremony. It was a little too long but that was the only problem.
The ceremony, titled "Dreams of Russia”, opened with an on­screen video showing
11­year­old Liza Temnikova playing a character named Lyubov (Russian for 'love') reciting the Russian alphabet. Each letter is associated with images of a famous Russian person or landmark. Lyubov then flew into the air as she dreamed of grabbing the tail of a kite and being lifted far off the stage.
Nine different floats, carrying Russian landscapes, passed beneath her as she slept. The whole Russian alphabet thing was still a little confusing to me because I don’t speak Russian but besides that it was interesting.
The Independent's