We Have Ways of Making You Go for the Gold

Vladimir Putin, whose winning smile you can't help but love, further cemented his diplomatic legacy when he managed to secure the rights to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in the Black Sea resort city of Sochi:

International Olympic Committee members credited Putin's personal lobbying for the 51-47 victory that put the 2014 games in Sochi, a Black Sea resort where the snow-capped Caucasus mountains rise from some of Russia's warmest beaches.

In related news, the members of the Olympic selection committee did not die of radioactive Polonium poisoning.