Georgian National Olympic Committee yesterday decided to take part in 2014 Winter Olympic Games to be celebrated in February in Sochi (Russia). According to Georgian on-line newspaper Civil.ge, the president of the Committee, Leri Khabelov, has said that politics and sport should remain separated in this case.

The Olympics had been yet another sore point in the relationship between Russia and Georgia. Sochi is situated relatively close to Abkhazia, one of the two republics (the other one being South Ossetia) that were recognized as independent states by Russia in 2008, after a brief war between Russians and Georgians in August. Former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili had said that celebrating the Olympics in Sochi was problematic, and he did not want to confirm if Georgian athletes would be attending the event.

Furthermore, the Georgian Parliament had officially recognized in 2011 that Russia had committed "genocide" against the Circassians when the tsarist troops had occupied Northern Caucasus in the 19th century. This recognition was not welcomed in Moscow. Circassian associations say that Sochi was built on former Circassian land after occupation, and have objections regarding the celebration of the Olympics there.