Russia's largest broadcaster Channel One will present 13 candidates to become the official mascot of the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The 10-minute TV show, in which animated characters would call on Russians to support them in the nationwide SMS-vote, will begin at 21:30 Moscow time (18:30 GMT) on Monday.
The 13 characters, including dolphin, polar and brown bears, leopard, snowflake and bullfinch, were chosen by a special commission among 24,000 candidates on the official website of the 2014 Olympic Games mascot.
The winner will be announced in late February.
A nationwide competition to find a mascot for the 2014 Olympics kicked off on September 1, 2010. The mascot "should encompass a range of features characteristic of Russia, and at the same time be intelligible to people of every age, profession and nationality," organizers said earlier.
MOSCOW, February 7 (RIA Novosti)
