Russia’s 2014 Olympics a Disaster in the Making
Putin admits that the city of Sochi has "no proper sewage system, electricity supply, or infrastructure." And Chechnya is right next door.
Could Russia be divested of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, which have been awarded to its southern city of Sochi? For several reasons, it’s becoming a distinct possibility. And Russia might be better off if it happened.
At a press conference in Moscow on April 10, timed to coincide with the Kremlin’s first formal progress report to the International Olympic Committee, a coalition of anti-Kremlin activists, including Garry Kasparov, warned that several of the Kremlin’s planned construction sites have become infeasible due to the unforeseen height of the water table. The IOC, in an unusual move, granted the games to Sochi without there being any actual infrastructure in place to receive them, solely on the Kremlin’s word that a whole new world would be created from scratch. This has even included a grandiose plan to build a Russia-shaped island off the coast of Sochi in the Black Sea to house the athletes. Last October, Vladimir Putin himself stated: “We unfortunately have to admit that at this point, in a city of half a million people, there is no proper sewage system, electricity supply, or infrastructure.” One must wonder how clearly Russia made that point to the IOC in its bid document.
Rather obviously, if you don’t build it, they won’t come.
But even if the facilities could be constructed, opposition advocates point out that the cost of doing so will be astronomical, far beyond the figure quoted by Russia to the IOC in its bid. The Other Russia coalition states: “Ivan Starikov of the People for Democracy and Justice Party commented that the current estimate for transportation infrastructure alone was now set at seven billion dollars. One Russian member of parliament, Viktor Ilyukhin, told the press on April 3 that the Sochi Olympics could cost more than the last three Winter Olympic Games combined.” This means, quite simply, that Russia has hoodwinked the IOC and defrauded the other nations who bid for the 2014 games, because proposed expenditure was a major factor in analyzing the bids. The nations who were denied the games could sue to block Russia from proceeding.
As if to confirm these serious problems, on April 18 the Moscow Times reported that Semyon Vainshtok, head of the corporate entity responsible for constructing the facilities, had abruptly resigned “amid accusations of mismanagement and cost overruns.” The paper reported that though the government had earmarked $8.5 billion for construction, costs had already passed $12 billion and were expected to reach $24 billion or more. Victor Ilyukhin, a Communist parliamentarian, said “the state’s planned budget for Sochi, $11.9 billion, would dwarf the $6 billion combined total spent on the Winter Olympics in Nagano, Salt Lake City, and Turin.”
Apart from the question of fraud, there’s also the issue of basic economic justice. Russia is a nation with yearly medical doctor salaries that average $5,160 to $6,120, while nurses make an average of $2,760 to $3,780 annually. That means a top-end doctor, like a surgeon, is only making about $500 per month, less than the national average of around $650 (the “average” isn’t a useful indicator of actual income, however, because it’s skewed by the bizarre level of income paid to Russia’s super-rich oligarchs). As a result, many Russian physicians turn to corrupt practices like selling drugs on the black market and demanding bribes from patients in order to make ends meet. Given that background, it’s no surprise to learn that Russia has only 200,000 of the 600,000 physicians it needs as a nation and that it does not rank in the world’s top 100 nations for average male adult lifespan.
In a brilliant white paper reviewing the Putin years in power, former Kremlin insider Boris Nemtsov points out: “In 2007, expenditure planned for public health and education amounted to 9% of the federal budget. For 2008, the three-year budget for 2008-2010 is allocating 8% of the federal budget and this will go down to just 7.5% in 2009.” Russia “spends only three percent of its GDP on health, a figure that is only half of what it should spend and one that puts Russia near the bottom of developed countries,” according to scholar Paul Goble, translating a Russian report by Leonid Roshal, the director of the Moscow Research Institute on Emergency Pediatric Surgery and Traumatology. And of that measly 3%, he says, up to a third will be siphoned off by corruption before it ever reaches those it was intended to support. Last July, before Putin’s recent purge of parliament, even some elected officials in Russia were appalled by the obvious inequity. Andrey Savelyev, deputy chairman of the Committee of the State Duma for Constitutional Legislation and State Building, stated: “Indeed in order to convert this city into the sports center, it is necessary to spend colossal amounts of money, which are necessary in our country for other purposes.”
And even if the cost and construction were under control, there are other serious problems. Greenpeace is threatening legal action over wanton environmental spoilage that is occurring in the formerly pristine Black Sea ecosystems. Mass evictions are occurring under an eminent domain law that was hurriedly pushed through parliament, and local residents are complaining about mistreatment and lack of fair compensation. They argue the eminent domain statute is unconstitutional. Recently, protesters clashed with police and many were violently assaulted.
On top of all that, there’s still a thousand-pound gorilla in the room named Chechyna. Separatist violence in the war-torn region is far from under control, and the region is suffering from extreme levels of unemployment (up to 400,000 of Chechnya’s 1.1 million inhabitants are jobless). It’s hard to imagine how the Chechen rebels, who have inflicted the brutal Beslan and Dubrovka terrorist assaults, will decide to stand idly by as Russia attempts to carry out a public relations stunt right under their noses, literally a Molotov’s cocktail throw away. Think Tibet, times ten (not surprisingly, the head of the Sochi games has vociferously opposed a China boycott). It’s even harder to imagine what possible rationale led the IOC to vest this particular region of Russia, of all places, with the Winter Games. In an unprecedented move, Russia is already testing various defensive missile systems to protect Sochi during the games.
Last August, the Moscow Times reported on Russia’s attempt to host what it billed as a “big league air show,” attempting to market its airplanes to international buyers. The paper stated that international visitors were shocked by the backwardness they encountered. “Words like ‘amateur’ and ‘bizarre’ were … common in assessments coming from foreigners,” whose most frequent complaints “ranged from poor transport links and inadequate infrastructure to ponderous security checks, bad food, and revolting public toilets.” One visitor stated: “It is very expensive to be here and it is not worth it.”
So, in the end, it actually might be better for Russia’s reputation if it did lose the games; otherwise, under the white-hot spotlight of world attention, Russia may be exposed as a Potemkin Village and melt before the world’s eyes like so much springtime snow. It could be that Putin actually has no genuine desire to impress the outside world, but rather only wants to create a spectacle for domestic consumption, filtered through the helpful eyes of Russia’s state-controlled media. If he’s not careful, though, Russia could experience a spectacular and unprecedented humiliation that the nation’s still-kicking Internet will percolate throughout the country.
And the people of Russia would certainly be better off without the games, devoting their precious (and temporal) fossil fuel windfall to vital needs such as medical care. Quite literally, the IOC’s decision to hand Putin’s Russia the games may be helping the people of the country into an early grave.
Seen in that light, the apparent decision of Russia’s opposition forces to target the Kremlin’s weakness on Sochi is a formidable one. This is clearly an area where they have the potential to gain serious traction if they play their cards well, and it will be most interesting to see how the matter unfolds.
Kim Zigfeld is a New York City-based writer who blogs at the Pajamas Media Network blog Publius Pundit and publishes her own Russia specialty blog, La Russophobe. She also writes for Russia! magazine and is researching a book on the rise of dictatorship in Putin’s Russia.
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23 Comments
1. Olympic » Blog Archive » Russia’s 2014 Olympics a Disaster in the Making:[...] Pajamas Media wrote an interesting post today on Russiaâ
May 4, 2008 - 3:04 am 2. Mikhail Drabkin:I applaud your concern for the well being of the Russian people. Why, of course coming from an American, form one not caring for their own: uninsured, underemplyed, undereducated.. caring deeply about the Russian people.
I would suggest caution: as we implode here, in the US, you may find yourself looking for a job in Russia. And, I may advise – it will not be Mr. Kasparov, or the like, that will review your resume.
With best regards,
Mikhail Drabkin
May 4, 2008 - 3:24 am 3. Erinaceus Cyprius:It’s not just the lack od sewerage in that sewer of a country. It’s the fact that Sochi is the site of one of the worst genocides committed by the Russian swine–the genocide of the Great Adygui nation. We know them–or those who survived–as Adygui, Circassians, Kabardins, Abkhaz, Shapsug, Abazin, Ubykh.
May 4, 2008 - 4:36 am 4. hiawatha biscayne:I hope the Koreans get the games in the end.
implode? oh my goodness. you need to get out a bit more, mike. or maybe loosen your corset and have a good cry.
May 4, 2008 - 5:37 am 5. Greg Oceanside:Mik: I respect your nationalist sentiments, but egad man!! How could you be so dim? Comparing the U.S. ills with Russian? Don’t be fooled by what our news organizations report about the U.S. While we have 5% unemployment and an uncomfortable level of uninsured Americans, things need to be taken in perspective, eh? We have 300 million pop, which is a distant third highest in the world, while our per-capita income is among the highest. While our health care system isn’t perfect, it does offer the highest standard in the world. As for the uninsured, we do have a safety net. One need look no further than the illegal immigrants who cross over the border to have babies in the U.S. so as to assure future legal resident status for them and citizenship for her child. Who do you think is footing the bill? As for seeking a job in Russia….oh, please. However, I could see the wisdom in hiring an American over a Russian. An American might be just what is needed to reverse the backwardness of a system botched by 80 years of communism that left the average Russian, a drunk, defeated, rusty rube.
May 4, 2008 - 6:47 am 6. mishu:At least we have sewers, Mikhail. As for underemployed, etc., there seems to be a lot of sites such as these. While I’m not fluent in Russian, I don’t see many sites touting Американские Невесты for immigration to Russia.
May 4, 2008 - 7:16 am 7. slavus:sites touting Американские Невесты for immigration to Russia
May 4, 2008 - 7:55 am 8. Zach:+1 (hysterical on the floor)
Average life expectancy
United States: 75 (male), 81 (female)
Russia: 59 (male) 73 (female) The male rate is about the same as Ghana.
Net Immigration
United States: 1,160,000 (2005)
Russia: 80,000 (2005)
Population growth rate
United States: 0.97%
Russia: -0.51%
GDP
United States: about 13 TRILLION
Russia: Less than a Trillion, and less than Spain
Male suicide rate (per 100,000 per year)
United States: 17.9 (#43 in world)
Russia: 61.6 (3rd in world)
Murder rate (per year per 100,000)
United States: 5.9
Russia: 16.5
Ease of doing business (World Bank)
United States is #3
Russia is #106, right behind Bosnia and just ahead of Bangladesh.
I don’t think Russia will be eclipsing the US anytime soon in attracting international business. And what will become of Russia when alternative energies replace petroleum, which is almost certain to occur in the next 25 years?
May 4, 2008 - 8:02 am 9. A Russian:To Greg: Actually you’d be suprised how many of your country folks are looking for a job in Russia these days. I happen to work with a number of Americans here in Moscow. Some of them have lived here for 10-15 years but the majority have come in the last year or so. Most are coming from London as things are getting tough in banking there, so many are now heading East…
May 4, 2008 - 9:20 am 10. colleen:http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aJoGeYVHUv8o&refer=europe
When Nick Wilsdon met his Russian wife, Anna, on the Internet, friends teased him about his mail- order bride. Turns out, he was a mail-order husband.
Three years after first exchanging e-mails with Anna on an online dating site, the Web designer from England’s south coast made the 2,200-mile trek to Ivanovo, Russia’s “City of Brides.” He and Anna are now expecting their first child.
The Ivanovo region has the highest ratio of women to men in Russia, a legacy of the Soviet textile mills that imported female workers from across the country. The city, which once helped marriage bureaus recruit young women for foreign spouses, is now enticing residents to stay and raise families. That’s fuelling a baby boom as Russia struggles to stem a population decline…
May 4, 2008 - 12:19 pm 11. Rojo:More of the same russophobic drivel… That’s OK. We are used to it. The little doggy keeps barking, but the caravan rolls on…
May 4, 2008 - 12:36 pm 12. Peace Like A River » Cables, dispatches and memoranda:[...] Pajamas Media – Russia’s 2014 Olympics a Disaster in the Making; Putin admits that the city of Sochi has “no proper sewage system, electricity supply, or infrastructure.” And Chechnya is right next door. [...]
May 5, 2008 - 3:38 am 13. Kim Zigfeld:ROJO:
Maybe you are not aware of the feature, but our articles contain hyperlinks to source material. If you pass your cursor over the text you will see the key terms underlined. You can click on them and read the source.
I offer this suggestion because you don’t seem to be aware of the fact that the vast majority of the source material for this article is written by Russians in Russia. Hence, your comment about “russophobia” doesn’t really hold water.
In fact, it sounds disturbingly like what the old USSR used to say about its critics — that they were traitors to be ignored (and maybe jailed). But, as you may know, in the end it turned out that the critics were not only correct but the only true patriots to be found in the USSR.
Just some food for thought.
May 5, 2008 - 6:16 am 14. Saltherring:I venture that any American looking for a job in Russia either (A) couldn’t hold onto a job in the U.S., or (B) is a descendent of Klondike end-of-the-rainbow gold-seekers.
May 5, 2008 - 7:22 am 15. Alan Kellogg:Here’s what’s really going on vis a vis Americans going to work in Russia. Those expatriates are there to organize and lead civil reform actions aimed at establishing local pro-American governments that will petition the U. S. government for emergency annexation. Special American legislation will then take effect and hundreds of American troops and Federal workers will be transported to the new American territory to prepare the way for remedial action. The first pro-American reform movement is expected to take place when the Russian population falls below 100 million.
This delusional conspiracy theory brought to you by vodka, russet potatoes, and the number 42 in base 13.
May 5, 2008 - 8:26 am 16. pch1013:“basic economic justice”
That must the the first time those words have ever appeared on PJM without sneer quotes around them.
Well done Kim.
May 5, 2008 - 2:18 pm 17. Sam:I imagine that Americans going to Russia for jobs may be in the oil business because our leftist politicians have successfully blocked domestic production while Russia is doing everything they can to expand theirs.
May 5, 2008 - 2:37 pm 18. Chris R.:The IOC’s upcoming World Tour of Communism was doomed to failure from the beginning. Awarding games to regions without infrastructure is pure insanity and the IOC keeps doing it anyway. The IOC claims that Olympic games won’t be affected by political issues but the reality is quite the opposite.
Athletes suffer the most, being used as pawns by the IOC. No athletes equals no games, and without the games the IOC would cease to exist. Perhaps it is time to stop engaging in this tradition simply for the sake of continuing a tradition. Does it really make sense to build massive, limited-use facilities that wreak havoc on local environments and displace many thousands of people? Since when are the Olympics supposed to harm people, besides some of the athletes?
I’m sure the average Chinese citizen will be eagerly watching the games in August, if they aren’t out looking for rice to put on their tables.
May 6, 2008 - 3:46 am 19. russia:[...] reasons, it??s becoming a distinct possibility. And russia might be better off if it happened.http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/russias-2014-olympics-a-disaster-in-the-making/Book results for russiaThe Oligarchs: Wealth And Power In The New russia [...]
May 6, 2008 - 8:41 am 20. Notes from the Blogosphere » An extended "In Russia" joke:[...] In case you haven’t heard, the 2014 Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held in the Black Sea town of Sochi, and they’ve got a bit of preparation to do, starting with roads, electricity, and sewage. [...]
May 12, 2008 - 1:31 pm 21. Notes from the Blogosphere » An extended "In Russia" joke:[...] In case you haven’t heard, the 2014 Winter Olympics are scheduled to be held in the Black Sea town of Sochi, and they’ve got a bit of preparation to do, starting with roads, electricity, and sewage. [...]
May 12, 2008 - 1:31 pm 22. top ten athletes salaries:[...] to build a Russia-shaped island off the coast of Sochi in the Black Sea to house the athletes. …http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/russias-2014-olympics-a-disaster-in-the-making/Late breaking news Money/<b>Finance News</b> Presenter Sportsmedia Broadcasting is expanding [...]
May 14, 2008 - 9:12 am 23. Mikhail Drabkin:It has been good to see that my comment changed the discourse on this page. I thank all those that remind me how much more advanced we are here in the West and what a blessing a warm toilet is, what losers all those that seek work in Russia are, etc… And the stats!!! What is telling, that you guys all need to prove yourself that you still are better than those Russians, right? Or are you now?
Good. Keep at it, and hope you all remain exceptionally American. Or is it American exceptionalism – I forget now.
Really!
With best regards,
Mikhail Drabkin
Sep 23, 2008 - 10:05 pm