The Taint Reaper posted:

At this point I think any random bumfuck nation in North Africa could handle the Olympics better. Hell they could even provide lions for gladiator matches.

ZombieReagan posted:

Let's hold Winter Olympics in subtropical resort city, do not worry Russia is very modern country!

*fails to get water to not be contaminated in hotels, ceilings are made of tarps, stray dogs roam everywhere*

$51 billion US Dollars

NoneSuch posted:

so this is probably the cheapest olympics cool

Agrajag posted:

Murrica' should take notes on such an amazing feat in austerity. The Russians quite literally built all this poo poo in Sochi on a shoestring budget, lmbo.

Entropic posted:

I bet Dubai could pull off a Winter Olympics.

Entropic posted:

I bet Dubai could pull off a Winter Olympics.

The Kins posted:

Be sure to tell your bookie this before July 31, 2015. You'll probably make a bundle!

Philthy posted:

Yodzilla posted:

fatherboxx posted:

the codes and norms are actually alright, very strict and clear, it is just
1) people who were planning the buildings hosed up in a rush ("oh no, I misclicked something in AutoCAD but the deadline was a week ago so welp")
2) the organisations approving the constuction design were either bribed up or threatened ("look, Petr Alekseevich, the deadline is yesterday, can we just stamp the poo poo these engineers are pros honestly"), and, finally,
3) on the construction site everyone blindly follows the designs: the Tajikistan workers can't read them, the foreman drunk himself to death and the chief engineer is too busy playing World of Tanks or filling reports, so you have escheresque buildings as the result.

i am a legal counsel in a Russian civil engineering company, not connected to Sochi, sadly, but I'll be sure to hit my buddies in the construction that worked there for some awesome horror stories

Agrajag posted:

Lets be honest here, a lot of that $51 billion dollars went into Putin's secret piggy bank, and that hasn't even taken into account his oligarch friends doing the same.

Germstore posted:

Spent a months wage per household in Russia. Nice.

Vladimir Putin posted:

I find it interesting that despite all of the international scrutiny and speculation, there hasn't been one direct piece of evidence of any corruption whatsoever. Nobody has come forward saying they were bribed, nobody was caught on camera taking suitcases of cash. You would think that if there was all of this "corruption" of $51billions USD, that there would be some evidence of this somewhere. A piece of paper, a photo, something. I find this troubling, don't you?

quote:

“They’re digging up the road here, they’re digging up the road there,” he said. “The road gets sealed today, then dug up tomorrow. They put down asphalt and then in a week rip it up all over again.” He let out a laugh, then pulled his face tight. “It would be funny, if it wasn’t happening with our money.”

quote:

Another person in the construction business says he was offered a contract, potentially worth millions of dollars, to lay a water line at an Olympic site. The officials at the state body awarding the contract weren’t interested in whether he had the necessary resources for such a large job or would do quality work—the only question was whether he was willing to pay 20 percent back to them. A third construction boss says he was invited to carry out work on transport infrastructure. As the officials offering the job spelled it out, the contract would be worth 250 million rubles ($7.7 million) on paper, but he would only actually receive 170 million rubles—the officials, presumably, would pocket the difference.

quote:

The job was to oversee reconstruction of part of a government-owned sanitarium. There was a catch: An official at the Office of Presidential Affairs in charge of construction, Vladimir Leshchevsky, informed Morozov that as part of the arrangement Morozov was to turn over 12 percent of project funds to him, in bags of cash. Morozov says he informed law enforcement officers, but they told him to wait while they thought up a plan of action.

In early 2009, Morozov heard talk that he was going to be removed from the job—and maybe even “toughly,” which could mean his equipment and offices would be seized. At this, Morozov went back to the security services and told them it was time to help—otherwise, he would have no choice but to file a formal public complaint and raise a scandal. Police dispatched a team of operatives to work with him, but they said they could open an official case only after Morozov produced hard evidence of the extortion scheme. When Leshchevsky demanded a payment of 15 million rubles, they told Morozov to go through with it—but he would have to put up the cash himself. Morozov took out some money he and his wife were planning on using to buy his son a dacha. He documented the handoffs with a small camera hidden in his belt.
For the last exchange, Morozov proposed the two men meet at a restaurant not far from the gates of the presidential administration in Moscow. It was an official sting operation: The police put a wire in both the table and on Morozov himself. After he made the handoff and Leshchevsky had left, Morozov headed to the bathroom to meet up with a police agent and hand over the recording device that had been tucked under his clothes.
When he returned to the table, he saw that Leshchevsky had walked back into the restaurant, still holding the money. As Morozov remembers, Leshchevsky said, “It’s raining, I’ve got a long ways to walk, how about I sit and have a beer.” Morozov knew instantly the operation had failed—police were supposed to detain Leshchevsky as soon as he left the restaurant. Either the police lacked the authority to arrest such a high-ranking official or Leshchevsky had wriggled out of the trap. Morozov was disappointed, but not shocked. “Knowing this whole system, the idea the Kremlin would give him up, let him hang, is difficult to imagine,” he said. Leshchevsky has denied Morozov’s allegations.
After the failed sting, Morozov started talking to the press and sharing materials from the case. Dmitry Medvedev, then Russia’s president, ordered prosecutors to look into why the investigation had stalled. But investigators declined to bring charges and the case was dropped in 2012. In December 2011, Morozov went to London with his wife for New Year’s. After the holiday passed, he got a call from a contact in Russia warning him for his safety not to come back. He received asylum in the U.K. and now lives in an unremarkable, barely furnished home in the London suburbs.
Before I left, Morozov cautioned me against making too much of his story. If you look anywhere else in Russia, he said, “You will see the same thing, maybe even more.” The culture of informal mechanisms of control and the battle for influence as a proxy for personal enrichment predates the Olympics—and even Putin. “Sochi,” he said, “is just what is happening in Russia everywhere.”

Vladimir Putin posted:

I find it interesting that despite all of the international scrutiny and speculation, there hasn't been one direct piece of evidence of any corruption whatsoever. Nobody has come forward saying they were bribed, nobody was caught on camera taking suitcases of cash. You would think that if there was all of this "corruption" of $51billions USD, that there would be some evidence of this somewhere. A piece of paper, a photo, something. I find this troubling, don't you?

everythingWasBees posted:

The Russian economy is one of the most hosed up capitalist economies on earth. Like, legitimizing the capitalist black market after the fall of communism went about as well as you think, and the businesses hold an unfortunate amount of political power.

ZombieReagan posted:

I can't imagine tarp ceilings would actually pass a fire safety inspection, assuming they do that in Russia.

Toad on a Hat posted:

So apparently someone injured both knees on the woman downhill skiing and the men were hitting about 90 mph, all because the hill was too big and they didn't have expert testers. They used regular people who dont get the same airtime.

Entropic posted:

I bet Dubai could pull off a Winter Olympics.

everythingWasBees posted:

The Russian economy is one of the most hosed up capitalist economies on earth. Like, legitimizing the capitalist black market after the fall of communism went about as well as you think, and the businesses hold an unfortunate amount of political power.

ZombieReagan posted:

I just assumed those permits cost a ton of money to get approved, and the contractors took a huge chunk as well and just spent as little as they could on everything while pocketing the rest. Capitalism at its most efficient!

I can't imagine tarp ceilings would actually pass a fire safety inspection, assuming they do that in Russia.

Meis posted:

You guys know the guy you quoted is Vladimir Putin, right?

ZombieReagan posted:

This isn't a serious thread at this point, don't care. Everything is a set up for a cheap Sochi joke.

quote:

“Our security services are working with colleagues from Europe and North America,” Kozak said. “There is no reason to believe that the level of danger in Sochi is greater than at any other point on the planet, be it Boston, London, New York or Washington.

Toad on a Hat posted:

So apparently someone injured both knees on the woman downhill skiing and the men were hitting about 90 mph, all because the hill was too big and they didn't have expert testers. They used regular people who dont get the same airtime.

Also apparently the swag bag contains a bear created from the depths of hell. Sochi!

you irl posted:

why are you rushin to judgement? thats socheesy

Meis posted:

You guys know the guy you quoted is Vladimir Putin, right?

Agrajag posted:

Russian tactical plastic bag.

Agrajag posted:

Russian tactical plastic bag.

ZombieReagan posted:

those are clearly tactical track suits, they are black

Fat Ogre posted:

I worked at a computer hardware manufacturing company in the late 90s early 2000s and they had stories about trying to get their stuff on the shelf in Europe. Most of them were tame like different voltages for plugging in things or marketing on the box could be racist in one country and totally acceptable in another. But nothing tops Russia.

They didn't understand you had to bribe the local Russian mafia to get your hardware offloaded and bribe the cops to keep it from getting stolen. They were told a couple times you need to bribe to get your stuff on the shelves. And the higher ups were like, "Pffff they can't be serious. No way is that place this corrupt."

They went through 2 guys getting murdered before figuring it out and adjusting the budget to add in bribe amounts.

It was literally tracked by the accountants under the heading "Russian Bribes".

demonachizer posted:

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/world/heightened-security-amid-terror-threat-at-sochi-9111296.html


I think everyone needs to stop worrying. Boston, London, New York and Washington have never been hit by terror.