N.A. Trapsh (Rostov-on-Don). Olympic Geopolitical Context (Refl ections on Research Monograph G.N. Kolbaya “Sochi Olympics in Global Affairs”. Moscow, INFRA-M, 2013, 560 p.)

The article presents the results of the author’s analysis of large-scale monograph Russian researcher G.N. Kolbaya “Sochi Olympics in global politics”, dedicated to various forms of information and political opposition to the Olympic project from the United States, Georgia and other interested public entities and public organizations. The author details the historical circumstances that shaped the Georgian elite special interest to the region in question. He identifi es the main stages of information and political confrontation between Russia and Georgia in recent times, and assesses the impact of a natural “Abkhaz factor” in the bilateral relations of neighboring states. Russian experts able to analyze in detail the various political and legal instruments used in the framework of the Georgian elite system to counter the Sochi Olympic project. Of particular importance in this series is given offi cial recognition of “Circassian genocide” and territorial claims to the Russian Federation from the former Soviet republics. The tragic fate of the indigenous mountain communities of the Western Caucasus is regarded by the author, not only in the context of a large-scale confrontation between the great powers in the XIX century, but in the framework of an all-out struggle for geopolitical dominance peculiar world leaders beginning of the XXI century.