UNITED NATIONS -- Russia's hosting of the 2014 Winter Olympics may now be in question.
Georgian government sources tell Newsmax that they are quietly encouraging a resolution in the U.S. Senate to call upon the State Department to back a move revoking Russia's hosting of the event.
Those Games, slated for February 2014, are to be held at the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. Russia hosted the 1980 Summer Olympics, which was boycotted by the United States and more than 25 other nations after Russia invaded Afghanistan, but has never hosted the Winter Games.
The International Olympics Committee (IOC) came under intense criticism for allowing the 1980 Summer Olympics to go forward. Now, with the world trying to grapple with the Russian invasion of Georgia, the government in Tbilisi wants Moscow to pay the price this time that it escaped in 1980.
Georgian authorities point out that the Russian invasion not only ignored the traditional "Olympic truce," but actually took place as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin watched the opening ceremonies from a VIP area in China's National Stadium in Beijing.
Georgia's U.N. ambassador, Irakli Alasania, told Newsmax that his government will do whatever it can to put pressure on the Russians.
"You can be sure we will try and get the Olympics award withdrawn. ... They invaded on the opening day of the Olympics."
Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, told reporters that it was not Russia's decision to invade on Aug. 8.
'Don't blame us ... it was Georgia's actions that forced us to invade. It was they who prompted this action on the opening day of the Olympics."
It is unclear what the IOC will do once it returns home to Lausanne, Switzerland, after the Beijing Olympics.
IOC President Jacques Rogge has been vague on any potential IOC action.
The only time an Olympic venue has been changed in recent years was in 1976 when Denver, which had been awarded the Games, withdrew its acceptance. Innsbruck, Austria, hosted the Winter Olympics that year.
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