SOCHI-
Russia on Friday officially opens in Sochi its first ever Winter Olympics with a lavish ceremony attended by dozens of heads of state and aimed at impressing a sceptical world with an unforgettable spectacle.
With a hard act to follow after show-stopping Summer Olympics opening ceremonies in 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London, Russia is expected to pull out all the stops to give the world an evening to remember.
The ceremony starts, with symbolic timing, at 20: 14 local time (1614 GMT) in the spectacular new Fisht Stadium on the shores of the Black Sea and will mark the beginning of one of the most controversial Olympics in recent history.
“The ceremony will be one of the most exciting and visual ever,” the head of the Sochi organising committee Dmitry Chernyshenko told reporters.
“This is a theatre with a 40,000 seat capacity” he said of the Fisht stadium. “It can allow the realisation of any creative thought.”
Some of Russia’s most decorated cosmonauts -– including Sergei Krikalev who was famously stranded in space on the Mir station when the USSR collapsed — will raise the Russian flag to the top of the stadium.
However, who will light the Olympic cauldron is a closely-guarded secret, with Putin insisting it is the choice of the organising committee and not for him to interfere.
Russia’s team will be led out by flag-bearer Alexander Zubkov, a bobsleigh pilot and one of the most respected sportsmen in the country who has represented Russia at every Winter Olympics since Salt Lake City in 2002.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has spearheaded the Sochi Games from the bid in 2007, will be at the ceremony along with over 40 other heads of state and leaders.
These will include UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Chinese President Xi Jinping, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and embattled Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych who is facing a protest uprising at home.
Their appearance will also pave the way for several days of behind-the-scenes diplomacy at the Olympics where the Kremlin hopes to strengthen ties with key allies in an informal setting.
However US President Barack Obama and a host of key EU leaders will be absent, in what is seen by some as a snub to Russia after it passed a widely-condemned law banning the spread of gay propaganda to minors.
There have also been heavy concerns about security at the Games, particularly after the United States warned of the risk of militants attacking Russia-bound planes with explosives stuffed into toothpaste.
The official mascots for the Sochi Olympics include a leopard, a hare and a polar bear.