Sochi Olympics a "monstrous scam" - Russian opposition

PJ_Soul

And it sounds like not in the way the Olympics are normally a scam. Even worse. :shock: As someone who lives in a city that just hosted the winter Olympics, I think they come with both good and bad. A lot was built for the city that we really needed - the Olympics just fast-tracked their development. On the other hand, some other things were fucked up pretty royally, due to organizers just not keeping on top of things and not keeping proper tabs on what contractors were doing... In the end, they were relatively successful for Vancouver, but they went over budget by double (although one must take into account that the budgets are determined years in advance without taking inflation or changes in markets into account). Anyway, I'm not anti-Olympics necessarily, but they certainly do open the doors to boondoggles and political wrangling and scamming, etc. The watchdog groups need a stronger position, and there should be a requirement by the IOC for host cities to have an independent, non-partisan financial committee that can approve or veto spending.

Anyway, here's the article. I'm inclined to think that these accusations are likely true, at least in part. I mean, it's Putin and his crowd, in Russia. He's fucked, and Russia has issues. I don't think they should have chosen Russia as a host at all, given certain political issues there.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-22720228

Sochi Olympics a 'monstrous scam' - Russian opposition

As much as $30bn (£20bn) has been stolen in preparations for next year's Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russian opposition leaders say.

Boris Nemtsov and Leonid Martynyuk say the games are "a monstrous scam" and will be the most expensive in history, costing more than $50bn.

A lack of fair competition and secrecy sharply increased the cost, benefiting only businessmen close to President Vladimir Putin, they say in a report.

Moscow is yet to respond to the claim.

Investigation call

Mr Nemtsov, a former deputy prime minister, and Mr Martynyuk, a member of the Solidarity movement, released their report on Thursday after analyzing Olympic-related data for six months.

The authors say they reached their conclusions by looking at the gap between the original estimate and the final cost and also comparing it with cost overruns at previous Olympics.

"The expenses for the Winter Olympics in Sochi turned out to be more than all expenses for all the sports structures at the previous 21 Winter Olympics put together," the report says.

It says that "between $25bn and $30bn have been stolen", and this has benefited "only oligarchs and companies close to Mr Putin".

The opposition leaders claim that the stolen funds could have been used to build about 3,000km (1870 miles) of high-speed motorways or provide the housing for 800,000 people in Russia.

They say that the final cost of staging the event will be more than four times higher than the original price tag of $12bn announced by Mr Putin.

Mr Nemtsov was quoted by Reuters as saying that he would now be pushing for a thorough investigation into the matter by Russian prosecutors.

Details of their findings were released on the day Mr Putin met International Olympic Committee (IOC) officials in St Petersburg to unveil the medals for the Sochi games.

lukin2006

The Olympics are a huge scam ... I'm starting take huge issues here in Canada, especially with the Olympic hockey, The amount of money hockey canada has to come up with just to insure those NHL contracts is ridiculous ... fuck sending the nhl players, the league and the NHLPA can insure those contracts ... the Olympics need to go the way of the dinosaur ... imo.