Posted on 03/22/2008 6:47:05 PM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
More than 4,000 people are facing eviction to make room for the 2014 Winter Olympics in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, according to campaigners, who say that many will receive little or no compensation.
“My family has lived on this land for five generations,” said Dmitry Drofichev, a farmer. “We are being offered a fraction of what the land is worth. They’ll have to bulldoze me and the house to make me move.”
The authorities have already begun forcibly removing people from areas where Olympic facilities are to be built. Fifteen families of refugees from a war in the neighbouring republic of Abkhazia have been evicted from the outskirts of Sochi where they have lived for 15 years. They have nowhere to go.
Residents fear systematic evictions after the Duma, Russia’s lower house of parliament, passed a bill known as the “Olympic law”, which will speed up the confiscation of property. Typically, land offered to those facing eviction is said to be in remote and rundown areas and payments are far below the value of the property appropriated.
“We are being offered a far-away plot in the mountains and compensation that is 15 times lower than our land’s current market value,” said Drofichev.
The dispute is clouding preparations for the Games, the first to be held in Russia since the 1980 Moscow Olympics, which were boycotted by many countries in protest at the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Sochi, which is a short drive from Krasnaya Polyana, a mountain resort favoured by Vladimir Putin, previously bid for the 1998 and 2002 Winter Olympics, but lost after concerns were expressed about its Soviet-era infrastructure. To the surprise of many, Sochi beat Salzburg and Pyeongchang in South Korea in a close race for the 2014 Games.
The decision was seen as a personal triumph for Putin, a keen skier, who travelled to Guatemala to make an impassioned speech to the International Olympic Committee. Russian state television declared it “perhaps the greatest success in Russia’s modern history”.
Seven months later, the challenges of turning Sochi into an Olympic resort are becoming clear. Putin pledged £6.5 billion in state and private investment towards the Games. But the Kremlin’s original estimate did not include some of the infrastructure or the costs of buying 600 hectares of land.
Sergei Stepashin, the head of Russia’s state Audit Chamber, recently warned that the 2014 Games could cost £12 billion, double the original estimate. By comparison, the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics are thought to have cost about £1.5 billion and the bill for the 2010 Vancouver Games is expected to total about £2 billion.
Putin who, like Stalin before him, has his summer residence in Sochi, recently lamented the fact that even the city’s sewerage system is so dilapidated that pipelines often burst. Power cuts are commonplace. Some 200 building projects will have to be completed over the next seven years, including not only sports facilities but also railways, motor-ways and a new airport. The price of land in and around Sochi has gone up by 500% and is now said to be the most expensive in Russia.
Critics are warning of a rise in corruption. A commission set up by Putin to prevent money for the Games being siphoned off has not deterred some local bureaucrats. One official was caught trying to extort £200,000 from a businessman in return for ensuring that his land would not be confiscated.
“When we heard that Sochi had won the bid we were all overjoyed,” said Andrei Loginov, one of those facing eviction. “We thought it would bring in investment and create jobs. Now we realise that only a small clique stands to make fortunes, whereas ordinary people like us will just be pushed over and left behind.”
"Attempts to politicize the conduct of the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in China are unacceptable," the statement stressed.
"Russia has repeatedly declared that it regards Tibet as an integral part of China, considering resolving relations with the Dalai Lama to be an internal affair of the People's Republic of China," the statement said.
The Olympics are bunk.
that can probably be arranged, as long as they can get the bulldozer started.
LOL...a bunch of genocidal maniacs in Beijing are in cahoots with their fellows in Moscow.
How are you, Tailgunner Joe? Long time :)
Imagine no possessions, Comrade. It’s easy if you try.
Sort of sounds like the USA.
bursting sewer lines , in the wintertime , wow and Yuk!
If we survive 2012, we may well have to consider boycotting this one. Putin should have about moved on by then. If not, I don’t know.
Isn’t it way past time for the hordes of perpetually protesting leftists to take on the Olympics? This sort ot thing happens with virtually every Olympics, regardless of what country is hosting.
My thought exactly.
In fact, this sounds just like “Imminent domain” here in the U.S.
The only difference is that our cities seize land so that their city councils can get rich. Russia is seizing land for the Olympics, so they can get rich.
After having done some consulting with the SLOC, USOC, and the IOC... I can tell you that the politics of those organizations would rival anything you would find in the governments of Russia and China. The olympics are every bit as corrupt....
Does anyone watch the Olympics anymore? Channel surfing the last few times have even shown more empty seats in the stands than full ones. Have the games almost jumped the shark?
The shark was jumped in ‘84.
Haven’t watched or cared for years and years.
Sad, but true. It's always the result of Socialism, though. Those at the top make out like bandits (literally), and the rest get crumbs.
Yet another example of how Rush is so very right when he says we pay the highest price of all for ignorance. Ignorance of Socialism and it's consequences will be the end of this nation as we know it unless things change and change fast. Mark my words.....we're well down that road already and seeing the consequences daily......
I was thinking the Kelo decision might come into play the next time the U.S. gets the Olympics.
Note to self: read the thread first, it has probably already been said.
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