Rumour has it that Vancouver and Whistler may need to step in for Sochi during the 2014 Olympics. The mere suggestion of hosting the Olympics twice in four years is being met with shudders by local residents.

AssociatedContent.com writes how the IOC may have to move the 2014 Sochi Olympics to another city for the first time in history or cancel them for the first time since WWII and Kootenay Mountain Culture Magazine reports that the Russian host city is having challenges in meetings its timelines and obligations.

Robert Fisk doing what he does best:

This strategy has been tried before -- without success

Dec 3, 2009

... Victor Sebestyen, who has researched a book about the fall of the Soviet empire, has written at length of those frozen days after the Russian army stormed into Afghanistan just after Christmas of 1979. He quotes General Sergei Akhromeyev, commander of the Soviet armed forces, addressing the Soviet Politburo in 1986. "There is no piece of land in Afghanistan that has not been occupied by one of our soldiers at some time or another. Nevertheless much of the territory stays in the hands of the terrorists. We control the provincial centres, but we cannot maintain political control over the territory we seize."

The U.S. is making concerted effort to revive plans for a 3,300 km long natural gas pipeline that stretches from the Caspian sea through Turkey to Austria. This Nabucco pipeline is still very much in its infancy, lacking adequate supply of natural gas as well as lacking transit rites through intermediary countries in order to become viable enough to start building. This pipeline could potentially provide energy from Central Asia, and the Caucasus to Europe, diversifying Europe's supplies of natural gas.

A senior Russian official has, on Wednesday, confirmed that country's agreement to sell air defence missiles to Iran. Russian news sources have also indicated that the transfer of this military technology has not yet taken place, and appears to be delayed for political reasons. The reason given by a Russian defence expert was that "fulfillment of the contract will mainly depend on the current international situation and the decision of the country's leadership."

An inconclusive war between Azerbaijan and Armenia threatens to rear its head yet again as the underlying issues of the conflict remain unresolved. Al Jazeera’s People & Power has an excellent report on the current situation and warns of the possibility of war being declared by Azerbaijan sometimes in the next four or five years when that country reaches its peak oil output, thus believing itself at a position of economic advantage. If war was to break out, there is risk of the conflict becoming more widespread. Russia is allies with Armenia while Turkey, a NATO member, is allies with Turkic Azerbaijan.