Insurgents have vowed to disrupt the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea coastal town of Sochi, which lies on the same mountain chain, though the Sochi area has yet to see the same level of violence as the provinces surrounding Chechnya.With the Games approaching and only months to go before a parliamentary election in December and a presidential poll in March, Moscow aims to prevent more major militant attacks.
The $20-billion plan, promoted as the country's biggest tourist infrastructure project, will offer guests hundreds of miles of ski trails. Moscow says that only a grand project like this can end the cycle of poverty and violence behind the insurgency.