CHINA: OLYMPICS BEIJING 2008 - Georgia conflict casts shadow in Beijing

Record ID: 335316

  • Title: CHINA: OLYMPICS BEIJING 2008 - Georgia conflict casts shadow in Beijing
  • Date: 11th August 2008
  • Summary: RUSSIAN ATHLETES WALKING DOWN PATH
  • Embargoed: 26th August 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: International Relations,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA270B29V5Q1BMRPYPOZLHQEL17
  • Story Text: A member of the Russian Olympic delegation says recent Georgia row has affected the mood of the team's competitors.
    Russian athletes and Georgian athletes have decided to stay on at the Games despite Russian military attacks on Georgia's breakaway region of South Ossetia, a decision welcomed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
    Georgia has withdrawn its forces from breakaway South Ossetia, where they had been fighting Russian troops for control, the Georgian interior ministry said on Sunday (August 10). But the Russian army said Georgian forces were still there.
    One member of the Russian Olympic delegation to China, Dimitry Mosin, Vice President of Strategic Development for Russia's 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, said recent events had taken its toll on the atmosphere at the Games.
    "It certainly does not add any happiness to the event, of course.
    I believe that the international community should be united in their approach, as the Olympics are," he said.
    The announcement of a pullout followed three days of fighting in a Georgian push to take control of the pro-Moscow enclave from separatists, which prompted Russia to pour troops into South Ossetia and launch air strikes inside Georgia.
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