Winter Olympics 2014 get official mascots -- Leopard, White Bear and Hare.

MOSCOW, February 27 (Itar-Tass) - Leopard, White Bear and Hare have
become official mascots of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi.
A decision on this was passed about midnight Saturday by the Sochi
organizing committee upon the results of a nationwide SMS and telephone
live voting, which was broadcast by the Moscow-based Channel One.
In a simultaneous voting, the audiences named the Stellar Boy and the
Snowflake as the mascots for the 2014 Winter Paralympic Games.
Committee President Dmitry Chernyshenko, who announced the results,
said: "Since there are three positions at the winners' stand, we'll have
three mascots - the Leopard, the White Bear and the Hare."
"A popular Russian saying suggests that God loves Trinity and that's
why the Organizing Committee decided to leave three winners of the
audiences' preference rate," he said. "Each of them reiterates the Olympic
principles - friendship, respect and willingness for perfection."
In the outcome, the Leopard got 28% votes, the White Bear, 18%, and
the Hare, 16%.
The breakdown of votes for other mascots was as follows: the Dolphin,
12%, the Robin, 10%, the Matryoshka nesting doll, and the Brown Bear, 3%.
One of the favorites in previous rounds of people's voting, Granny
Frost, who in many ways is the Russian counterpart of Santa Claus,
withdrew from the race of its own free will, as it might become the
property of the International Olympic Committee /IOC/ then.
The legend behind the mascots imparts each creature with certain
personal qualities. It says, for instance, that "the Leopard is a
mountainous rescuer and climber who lives inside the crown of a tree
perched on the highest cliff in snow-capped mountaints of the
Caucasus."He's always ready to help and he has saved a village located
nearby from snow avalanches more than once."
"The Leopard excells in snowboarding and he has familiarized all of
his friends and neighbors with that sport. He is a merry animal very fond
of dancing, and that's why he can't live too far from people".
"The White Bear lives in an icehouse someplace inside the Arctic
Circle and everything in his dwelling -- the shower, the bed, the
computer, and even the sports simulators -- is made of ice and snow."
"Human researchers of the Arctic took part in his upbringing and
education since the time he was but a small cub. It was the researchers
who taught him to ski, to skate and to play curling. but he personally
developed a taste for bobsleigh and now his closest friends, the fur
seals, joyfully watch his victories."
"They organize competitions in these sports themselves, too,"
"The Hare is a young female creature living in the winter forest. Her
friends are always amazed at how much she manages to do every day."
"Not only is she an exemplary student at the Forest Academy, she
always finds time to help her mother about their family restaurant called
'The Forest Pond' and to take part in various competitions."
"The Hare assures her friends that she doesn't have any secrets and
she simply loves sports. One more thing she loves is singing and dancing."
As part of the televised show, the candidates who suddenly came alive
showed three-minutes-long introduction films about themselves.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with students
in Sochi he personally preferred the Leopard, whom he called "a strong,
the most quick-moving and nice-looking animal."
He said however he would trust the opinion of the majority of those
who took part in the voting.
Putin said the Leopard would be a highly emblematic image for the
Sochi Games. "The leopards as a species were exterminated in the past but
now they are being revived here."
"If the practical steps taken in connection with the Olympic project
bring about the revival of at least one segment of nature that has been
lost because of human activity, this is really very emblematic then,"
Putin said.
He stressed along with this once again the fundamental principle for
the selection of mascots is to take account of what the majority of people
think and "to avoid any connections to what Dmitry Anatolyevich or I
personally think."

.Decision of TV audiences on Sochi Olympics mascots objective.

MOSCOW, February 27 (Itar-Tass) - President Emeritus of the Russian
Olympic Committee, Vitaly Smirnov, believes the decision of the 2014
Winter Olympic Games Organizing Committee to make the Leopard, the White
Bear, and the Hare the official mascots of the Games is absolutely
objective, since it is based on the results of a nationwide interactive
vote.
The Sochi Organizing Committee made public its decision shortly before
midnight Saturday pending a televised poll by SMS and telephone calls
aired by the Moscow-based Channel One.
"I liked the fact that more than 1.2 million calls and text messages
in favor of one or another candidate mascot were received in the process
of interactive voting," Smirnov said.
When Itar-Tass asked him whether the decision to select three mascots
at a time is correct he said: "And why not? The International Olympic
Committee doesn't specify any restrictions."
He recalled that the modern history of the Olympic Games has known
cases of two mascots at the Games.
One such instance was offered by the 2010 Winter Olympics in
Vancouver, which had the Miga and the Quatchi.
He also noted the fact that the hero of Russian New Year fairytales,
Granny Frost, had dropped off the list of candidates.
"I'm in no position to explain for anything on behalf of the
Organizing Committee but I personally didn't feel optimistic about that
personage," Smirnov said.
"You see, Granny Frost is Santa Claus's parallel and Santa is one of
the symbols of Coca Cola and I don't rule out there might have been purely
commercial considerations for taking him off the race," he said.

.Russia supports UN resolution on Libya.

UNITED NATIONS, February 27 (Itar-Tass) - Russia has supported a
resolution on Libya that the UN Security Council passed Saturday night
"due to the seriousness of the events taking place in that country.
Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, made public Moscow's
support for the resolution as he took the floor at the session of the
Council.
Churkin said the numerous victims among civilian population cause
especial concern.
He indicated that Russia condemns the use of military power against
peaceful demonstrators and any other acts violence as strictly
unacceptable.
Moscow insists on an urgent slashing of all such operations, Churkin
said.
Russia urges the Libyan authorities to fulfill the demands that the
international community has formulated in the UN resolution, as well as by
the Arab League and the African Union.
Churkin said that this is necessary for averting a full-blown civil
war in Libya and keeping it up as a sovereign and territorially integral
country.
All the parties to the conflict should display responsibility, observe
international norms and guarantee human rights, the ambassador said.
"Reliable security must be ensured for the foreigners, including
Russians, and it's important to provide all the conditions for their
uninterrupted return home," Churkin said.
Along with this, he expressed the opinion that any settlement of the
current tensions in Libya is possible only if the sides manage transfer it
to the sphere of politics.
"This is exactly what the UN Resolution is spearheaded at," Churkin
said, adding that the document specifies precisely targeted measures
against the officials guilty of violence against civilians but does not
give the right to whatever military interference in the Libyan affairs,
since this might aggravate the situation further.
The resolution the Security Council endorsed Saturday night imposes a
ban on foreign trips by the Libyan leader Muamar Gaddafi, nine members of
his family and six closest associates.
The document that was endorsed unanimously also envisions the freezing
bank accounts of Gaddafi, his son Seif al-Islam Gaddafi and another four
family members.
In addition, it mentions the possibility of an embargo on the supplies
of weaponry to Libya.
-0-kle