United States Will Reportedly Have Warships on Standby to Evacuate Athletes at Sochi Games as a Contingency

The Sochi Olympics are only 17 days away. The Games begin on Feb. 7 and at the rate it’s going they’ll start under extremely high security concerns, saying nothing of Russia’s anti-gay policies or all the alleged graft that went into building the venues themselves.

On Monday multiple news sites report that police in Sochi are searching for up to as many as four “black widow” suicide bombers who may be operating in the city. Police are apparently handing out fliers in Sochi looking for one suspect. This comes on the heels of a video surfacing on Sunday night from Islamic militants saying there will be “a surprise” for Vladimir Putin and others attending the games.

CNN reports that the U.S. State Department will have warships and air transport ready to evacuate athletes and officials if anything happens during the games themselves:

"Planes and ships are clearly there “if something happens like a major terrorist attack and we need to get Americans out,” the official said."

Reminder, the games are barely two weeks away. Stay tuned.