After watching a documentary on CBC's The Passionate Eye last night, I am wondering how this schnozzle ever got off the ground in the first place. I am also left wondering if some of the athletes will be put in danger due to the choice of certain sites for venues. The giant ski jump is a good example of the latter, chosen not for its viability but for its location and designated as the opening site for the Games, the jump was built on unstable ground and has succumbed several times to landslides. It was immediately closed down once again this year following an exhibition of ski jumping when the ground beneath it subsided.
The film-makers were given unprecedented access to government officials, wealthy Russian business men and ordinary citizens whose lives have been irrevocably changed by the construction of the Olympic site. The Vancouver Winter Olympics cost 2 billion dollars, the Sochi Olympics latest estimates are in the $50 billion range and still rising. Hundreds of people have had their homes expropriated with zero compensation and some businesses have been taken over by the government also without being compensated. Huge landfills have been built right next to neighborhoods. One 45 kilometer road had an estimated cost of 2 billion per km. Graft, bribery, and cronyism appear to be the rule of the day as more money goes into the pockets of construction company bosses than into the sites themselves. Blocks of homes have been razed in order to construct large apartment complexes built on swampy ground that now sit empty and are in danger of failing. Some of the sites that were once a part of the plan will no longer be built due to construction delays and the poor choice - once again - for the site of the buildings.
It will be very interesting to see how this story plays out in the months to come considering that many venues are still not completed with only five months left before the Games are due to start. Apparently, Putin himself chose Sochi for the site of the Games and that choice may very well come back to haunt him.
Putin’s Road to Sochi - The Passionate Eye
The film-makers were given unprecedented access to government officials, wealthy Russian business men and ordinary citizens whose lives have been irrevocably changed by the construction of the Olympic site. The Vancouver Winter Olympics cost 2 billion dollars, the Sochi Olympics latest estimates are in the $50 billion range and still rising. Hundreds of people have had their homes expropriated with zero compensation and some businesses have been taken over by the government also without being compensated. Huge landfills have been built right next to neighborhoods. One 45 kilometer road had an estimated cost of 2 billion per km. Graft, bribery, and cronyism appear to be the rule of the day as more money goes into the pockets of construction company bosses than into the sites themselves. Blocks of homes have been razed in order to construct large apartment complexes built on swampy ground that now sit empty and are in danger of failing. Some of the sites that were once a part of the plan will no longer be built due to construction delays and the poor choice - once again - for the site of the buildings.
It will be very interesting to see how this story plays out in the months to come considering that many venues are still not completed with only five months left before the Games are due to start. Apparently, Putin himself chose Sochi for the site of the Games and that choice may very well come back to haunt him.
Putin’s Road to Sochi - The Passionate Eye