I haven’t yet been to Russia’s Black Sea coast, so I can’t offer any personal reflections on whether it’s a bad idea or a very bad idea that Russia has been chosen to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. My belief that it’s a bad idea stems from my general opposition to spending shitloads of money to build new stadiums and sport complexes ANYWHERE in this world when there are better ways to spend public funds and plenty of existing stadiums and sport complexes, not to speak of Russia, which could stand to improve teachers’, doctors’ and other public workers’ salaries, fight corruption, and generally do about a billion other things to improve the Russian people’s quality of life. The Olympics are a money-loser, not a money-maker, and while I appreciate the Olympic spirit and all, do we really have to pick a different city for each and every Games, until every city on the planet has an unused crumbling Olympic Village?
My friend Vadik, who has been to the Black Sea several times, offered another perspective last night: “If I wake up tomorrow and Sochi has been chosen I’m going to hate Putin even more. Russia is a huge country with one tiny piece of warm sea coast, where the whole country goes on holiday, and they’re going to take the last bits of untouched nature there and build elite fucking cottages.”
Megan Case 
7 comments
5 July 2007 at 2:38 pm
W. Shedd
Wow – I had guessed that most Russians would be universally for plowing under any vast amount of natural reserves, just to host an Olympics! :-)
I actually wrote a small entry on this topic, I was watching the announcement via live web streaming yesterday evening.
http://accidentalrussophile.blogspot.com/2007/07/2014-winter-olympics-selection.html If you care to read the comments.
I agree 100% with the observations about spending billions on Olympics when so many other things are needed, even as I acknowledge that Russia probably appreciates hosting the Olympics more than most countries.
I made the following point to a friend this past week, as we were discussing the potential Olympics. I think Russians generally want to be more like Europe (say Germany), than like China. So with all this new-found wealth .. when is Russia going to have decent roads (let alone a highway system like the Autobahn)? A more modern railway system? Modern water and wastewater treatment? Decent salaries for public workers (which would go a long way towards reducing corruption, to my mind)?
I also question the cronyism involved, where Putin is essentially enhancing the ski-resort investments of Gazprom and other big businesses/oligarchs.
Real estate prices in Sochi are already scorchingly high, this will only serve to drive the rents and price of property onward and upward.
As an aside, I can absolutely see the appeal of the location as a 4 season resort local. In the western world, the area would have been overdeveloped quite a long time ago. That is one of those contrasts between capitalist/free-market real estate development vs. communist/Soviet development of resources.
Anyway, with all these negatives … I still have to say that hosting the Olympics is a little feather in the cap of Putin. It is more about appearences than substance, but none the less I’ll give Russia kudos for working hard to bring the 2014 Olympics to Sochi.
6 July 2007 at 12:29 am
Global Voices Online » Russia: Sochi Victory
[…] As well as all the business possibilities opened up by their victory […].” Megan Case quotes a Russian friend: “If I wake up tomorrow and Sochi has been chosen I’m going to hate Putin even more. Russia […]
6 July 2007 at 4:34 am
Russophile
I was amazed at the lack of hotels and other amenities when I traveled to Sochi. In fact, the whole Black Sea coast of Russia could use some investment. It is beautiful but often you must stay in a rented private apartment to find reasonable and affordable accommodation. They have a lot of work to do, but I hope that the Olympics are successful. Certainly it is a huge sum of money to spend, but lots of people – from top to bottom – will receive a cut of that money as the work is completed. Plus, it will likely be the first time that the winter Olympics will be held at a beach resort, which will be interesting.
I posted my thoughts on the Sochi Olympics too and included a link back to your blog posting on the topic.
6 July 2007 at 9:42 am
varske
Did I miss something? I thought Sochi was a summer resort not a place for the winter Olympics. Couldn’t agree more about facilities for the elite, we’re back under communism again.
6 July 2007 at 11:57 am
Vilhelm Konnander
Dear Megan,
Very good piece! Did you notice that GV edited an element of “foul language” in their citation. ;)
Yours,
Vilhelm
7 July 2007 at 10:41 am
looby
Here in the UK, with prisons overflowing, rape crisis centres having their funding cut, certain universities on their last legs, we’ve suddenly found 10 billion pounds from somewhere to host the Olympics. They sell the idea as “regeneration”, but I would bet any money that 15 years from now it’ll be a wasteland of emplty “plazas” and underused stadia.
9 July 2007 at 7:25 pm
W. Shedd
“Did I miss something? I thought Sochi was a summer resort not a place for the winter Olympics. Couldn’t agree more about facilities for the elite, we’re back under communism again.”
That is the beauty of the place, varske. Very near the Black Sea beaches of Sochi is Krasnaya Polyana and any number of snow-capped mountains.
So those attending and participating in the Olympics will have a rare venue, which includes both palm trees and beaches … and mountains and snow. Russian developers (and the government for that matter) are looking to make the Sochi region a world-class year-round resort.
Oh yes. And plow under Mother Nature to do it. :)