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Keychain toy for backpack or handbag from Sochi Olympics. Rabbit. A nice cute gift for
St Valentines day.
The mascots for the 2014 Winter Olympics and the 2014 Winter Paralympics were revealed on February 26, 2011.[1] A shortlist of 10 Olympic and 3 Paralympic designs had been shown to the public on February 7, 2011.[2] Contents 1 History 1.1 Shortlisted designs 2 Controversy 3 References 4 External links History A nationwide design contest was held in Russia, from September 1 to December 5, 2010.[3] 24,000 designs were sent in for the contest.[2] Shortlisted designs A short list of designs were announced in December 2010, after a jury had reviewed thousands of designs. It was now down to 10 design ideas for the Olympic Games, and 3 design ideas for the Paralympic Games. The shortlisted designs were presented to the public on February 7, 2011.[2] A live national TV broadcast, on Russia's Channel One,[4] included a nationwide text message voting, where Russians voted for their favorite mascot.[2] Olympic Games Ded Moroz – Father Frost was later removed from the list of official candidates, because if it had been chosen as mascot, it would have become the property of the IOC[5] Brown Bear Snow Leopard – Olympics Mascot[6] Bely Mishka (Polar Bear) – Olympics Mascot[6] Zaya/Zaika the Doe Hare – Olympics Mascot[6] Little Sun Fire Boy (Ray of Light) & Snow Girl (Snowflake) – Paralympics Mascots[6] Bullfinch Matryoshka dolls Dolphin Paralympic Games Bullfinch Dolphin Nested doll/Tumbler toy Controversy Despite the success of the mascot selection process, some accusations have been brought against the mascots. The possibility of telephone vote rigging was brought up when the mascot that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin had said was his favorite, the snow leopard, polled the most votes in the voting process after a sharp climb in the number of votes. The chosen mascots have been criticized[by whom?] as bad choices that do not represent Russia and are simply results of sheer poor taste. Also, Viktor Chizhikov, the designer of the 1980 Moscow Games mascot Misha, accused the designer of the bear mascot for the Sochi Games of plagiarism, noting that the bear's facial features were all taken from his own work. The bear was also seen by politician Sergey Mironov as resembling the mascot of the United Russia political party, the current ruling party, leading to accusations of political propaganda.