Vladimir Putin

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The Olympic Cauldron, left, is lit during a test between the Bolshoy Ice Dome, top, and the Iceberg Skating Palace, foreground, early Thursday morning, Feb. 6, 2014, in Sochi, Russia, prior to the start of the 2014 Winter Olympics. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

Sochi’s opening show: Let Putin’s games begin

By ANGELA CHARLTON - Associated Press

FILE - In this July 7, 1980 file photo, a woman walks past a huge portrait of Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev that dwarfs the symbol of the upcoming XXII Summer Olympics right behind, in Moscow. Brezhnev and his ruling Politburo wanted the games to legitimize the Soviet system, a military superpower and economic basket case. (AP Photo/File)

Sochi Games hold echoes of 1980 Moscow Olympics

By STEVEN R. HURST - Associated Press

AP News in Brief at 5:58 a.m. EST

Associated Press

Putin, Lalovic talk wrestling in Sochi

By The Associated Press - Associated Press

Russian President Vladimir Putin pets a snow leopard cub at the snow leopard sanctuary in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014. Putin checked in Tuesday at a preserve for endangered snow leopards and visited a group of cubs born last summer in the mountains above the growing torrent of activity in Sochi for the Winter Games. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service)

Column: Sochi much more than mere fun and games

By JOHN LEICESTER - Associated Press

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks with Olympic Village Mayor Elena Isinbaeva while visiting the Coastal Cluster Athletes Olympic Village ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2014 in Sochi, Russia. (AP Photo/Pascal Le Segretain, Pool)

Putin, recalling Boston bombers, wants Sochi safe

By ANGELA CHARLTON - Associated Press

Russian President Vladimir Putin pets a snow leopard cub at the snow leopard sanctuary in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014. Putin checked in Tuesday at a preserve for endangered snow leopards and visited a group of cubs born last summer in the mountains above the growing torrent of activity in Sochi for the Winter Games. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service)

Putin strokes leopard, wins IOC support

By STEVEN R. HURST and STEPHEN WILSON - Associated Press

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at the opening of the 126th session of the International Olympic Committee, at the Zimny Theater, ahead of the 2014 Winter Olympics, Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin)

Anti-Putin beer makes debut: ‘Hello My Name is Vladimir’

By Cheryl K. Chumley - The Washington Times

FILE - In this Jan. 25, 1924, file photo, a man carries the American flag, as the United States is represented during opening ceremonies for the I Winter Olympics in Chamonix, France. The teams of all the nations represented, bearing their national flags and emblems, paraded from the City Hall to the skating rink, where the actual competitions began the following day. (AP Photo/File)

AP WAS THERE: At last, Winter gets its own ‘Games’

By Intro JIM LITKE - Associated Press

International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, center right, arrives at Sochi International Airport prior to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics on Friday, Jan. 31, 2014 in Sochi, Russia. The Olympic games will run from Feb. 7-23. (AP Photo/Matthew Stockman, Pool)

New IOC president faces challenging 1st games

By STEPHEN WILSON - Associated Press

FILE - In this Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013 file photo, demonstrators stage a theatrical play where gays are grabbed by others wearing masks of Russian President Vladimir Putin, during a protest against Russia's new anti-gay law banning &quot;propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations&quot; in central London. Despite seven months of international protests, Russia's law restricting gay-rights activity remains in place leading up to the winter olympic games. Yet the eclectic campaign has heartened activists in Russia and, without question, caught the attention of its targets - including organizers and sponsors of the Sochi Olympics that open on Feb. 7. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis)

Sochi sponsors pulled into gay-rights fray; activists fly to Russia to join protests

By David Crary - Associated Press

Russian punk band Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, and Maria Alekhina, right, glance at each when responding to questions from the media during a press conference as part of a human rights weekend in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Friday, Jan. 31, 2014. Tolokonnikova and Alekhina were released from prison last month after serving 21 months for hooliganism following their March 2012 arrest for giving an unauthorized performance in Christ The Savior Cathedral in Moscow, Russia. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)

Pussy Riot urges pols to speak out in Sochi

By TOBY STERLING - Associated Press

FILE - This is a Tuesday Sept. 25, 2012 file photo of Sochi 2014 Olympics President and CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko as he speaks to the Associated Press in Moscow. Chernyshenko the chief organizer of the Sochi Olympics says the Russian city is the ``most secure venue on the planet’’ and promises the tight security measures will not detract from the atmosphere of the games. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

Sochi organizers back-track on free speech

By CHRIS LEHOURITES - Associated Press

FILE - This is a Tuesday Sept. 25, 2012 file photo of Sochi 2014 Olympics President and CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko as he speaks to the Associated Press in Moscow. Chernyshenko the chief organizer of the Sochi Olympics says the Russian city is the ``most secure venue on the planet’’ and promises the tight security measures will not detract from the atmosphere of the games. (AP Photo/Sergey Ponomarev)

Sochi organizers clarify free-speech issue

By CHRIS LEHOURITES - Associated Press

FILE - In this Wednesday, Feb. 6, 2013 file photo Russian President Vladimir Putin visits the Rosa Khutor Alpine Center outside the Black Sea resort of Sochi, southern Russia. For President Vladimir Putin, the Winter Olympics he brought to Sochi have always been about far more than sports. The benefits he sees from holding the games range from improving Russia’s international standing and instilling a sense of national pride to turning around the country’s demographic decline. And of course Putin wants to be seen, at home and abroad, as the man who made this all possible. (AP Photo/Ivan Sekretarev, File)

For Putin, Sochi Olympics carry big risks, rewards

By LYNN BERRY - Associated Press

side by side: Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill I has echoed President Vladimir Putin's view that Western countries are engaging in a "spiritual disarmament" of their people. (Associated Press)

Who’s ‘godless’ now? Russia says it’s U.S.

By Marc Bennetts - Special to The Washington Times

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, arrives at the Capitol as the Senate votes to approve a $1.1 trillion spending package, the Omnibus Appropriations Act, a bipartisan compromise that all but banishes the likelihood of an election-year government shutdown, at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 16, 2014. The legislation is a follow-up to the budget compromise the two parties pushed through Congress in December that set overall spending limits for the next two years. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Sen. Cruz rips Putin’s Human Rights record, demands more U.S. leadership

By Seth McLaughlin - The Washington Times

Russian police officers search a vehicle at an entrance to the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games park, Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014, in Sochi, Russia. The Olympics begin on Feb. 7. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

Sochi set to welcome the world amid storm clouds

By STEPHEN WILSON - Associated Press

In this photo taken on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2014 a statue of Lenin stands in a central park in Sochi, Russia, surrounded by temporary fencing where workers are putting up one of the Olympic “live sites”. The Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi is hosting the Winter Games on Feb. 7-23. (AP Photo/Nataliya Vasilyeva)

Russian activist publishes Sochi corruption file

By NATALIYA VASILYEVA - Associated Press

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at his meeting with Olympic volunteers in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, Friday, Jan. 17, 2014. (AP Photo/RIA-Novosti, Alexei Nikolsky, Presidential Press Service)

U.S. Olympic athletes in Sochi trust in Putin for their security

By Brian McNally and Mike Harris - The Washington Times