What does President Putin hope to gain from hosting the Winter Olympics? There is a grave danger that the messages behind the Kremlin’s rebranding exercise could boomerang against the government.
Russia is devoting considerable effort to trying to ensure that the Sochi Winter Olympics are safe and secure. Mark Galeotti wonders whether the real concern is not an attack on the Games but the consolidation of the security state.
The unprecedented series of mega-events which are set to take place across Brazil in the coming years have lead to heightened security in host cities – a gold mine for the global private defence industry.
Rio de Janeiro has engaged in an ambitious security operation aimed at freeing its favelas from the control of gangs in time for the 2016 Olympics. But security is not the only rationale behind the program. As with everything, economic interests and international exposure drive Rio's makeover.
Gleaming plans for urban revitalization ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics include the not-so-shiny removal of thousands of families in lower-class communities.
The London 2012 security mess isn’t just about staff shortages. Mark Perryman asks just who the abundant precautions are there to protect.
An inside report from London 2012's 'official protest' group, the Space Hijackers, on the terrifying powers of LOCOG - the shadowy organisation whose influence led to the banning of their twitter account.
In 2014 Russia will host the Winter Olympics in Sochi, once upon a time the capital of independent Circassia. The city has 20,000 Muslims, but no mosque. Sufian Zhemukhov considers the historical reasons for official antagonism to building a mosque and its implications for the Winter Olympics.
