According to the opposition politicians, anyway. Me, I don’t believe it. It just doesn’t seem credible.
A lack of fair competition and secrecy sharply increased the cost, benefitting only businessmen close to President Vladimir Putin, they say in a report.
Nonsense! This sort of thing is entirely without precedent in Russia, which prides itself on transparency, open competition, and politicians who keep a healthy distance between themselves and commercial ventures.
A Russian official dismissed the claim.
See? What more proof do you need?
He also questioned the wisdom of staging the games in a subtropical climate in the city on the Black Sea coast.
Not only are these opposition leaders attempting to tarnish the fine reputation of the IOC, they are killjoys to boot.
Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee (IOC) spokesman Mark Adams said it appeared that Russia was taking any corruption claims related to the Olympics seriously.
And if the word of a Russian official wasn’t enough, who can doubt the purity and sincerity of an IOC spokesman?
Mr Adams said Moscow was addressing the issue “pretty much head-on from the president down”, according to the Associated Press news agency.
Well there you have it. If the president is involved, how can there possibly be a problem?
“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”.
You say stolen, I say invested wisely. This is purely semantics.
Nothing to see here, folks.
Anyone know the Russian for ‘same old same old’?
Disgraceful. Meanwhile the average Russian has to make do with sub standard everything. Sochi Olympics should be boycotted by all countries who claim transparency is important.
Last I heard, the budget for the Sochi games had reached $53 billion last I heard. That is around twice the largest estimates I have heard for the London Summer Olympics. (To be fair, the London Games likely cost far more than even those largest estimates when you include all those externalities).
Large sporting events are an excuse for vested interests to rob and pillage the public though. At this point that is just about the whole point of them. The next soccer World Cups were given to Russia and Qatar because of this. Give them to England, Spain, or other places tha have the facilities and infrastructure already in place, and there is little scope for corruption. Therefore they don’t get the events given to them.
@Michael: yes, I remember you making this point on Samizdata recently, and I agree. FIFA have seen the IOC gravy train and want some action of their own.
There is immense jealousy within football governing bodies concerning money, too. The most lucrative source of money comes from television rights for club competitions, which are what fans are passionate about, which play continually for much of the year, and for which interest carries far beyond the borders of the countries in which the leagues take place. Therefore the governing bodies of the biggest leagues (England and Spain particularly) are immensely rich. UEFA is also very rich, as the European club competitions and particularly the Champions League are also immensely lucrative). Despite various attempts to create World Club Championships, FIFA’s only big money event is the World Cup, which is short and only comes once every four years. This means that although FIFA is supposedly in charge, it is financially weak compared to some other bodies that are theoretically subordinate to it.
Therefore, FIFA’s officials want to suck as much money out of it as they can. (Also, the fact that they are resentful of the money being made all the time by England, Spain, and Europe is another reason why they are reluctant to award the World Cup to Europe and particularly the footballing heartland of Europe).
And look at this.