Russia should be stripped of the 2014 Sochi winter Olympics for sending troops into neighboring Georgia, two U.S. lawmakers said Thursday in announcing a planned bill to put before Congress when it reconvenes after its August recess. Representatives Allyson Schwartz and Bill Shuster, both from Pennsylvania, will ask Congress to urge the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to disqualify Russia from hosting the games and designate a new host city. Sochi is located in southern Russia along the Black Sea coast, and is near the separatist Abkhazia region that is part of the military conflict that began over Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia province. “It is practically and financially untenable to hold the 2014 winter Olympic games less than 20 miles (32 kilometers) from a zone of conflict, particularly when the host country has played a significant role in the escalation of that conflict,” the proposed bill says.
