"The Russian government has spent $51 billion on the Olympics in the hopes of turning the Black Sea summer resort into a year-round tourism destination. But persistent rain has soaked Sochi, delaying work and turning it into a sodden construction zone in the weeks leading up to the games.
While pregames attention has focused on cost overruns, threats of terrorist attacks, and the Russian law banning gay ‘‘propaganda’’ among minors, the hotel situation could become an embarrassment for local organizers....
--more--"
No wonder the globe flak isn't happy:
"At Putin’s Olympics, turmoil outruns the torch; Stumbling start for Russia’s lord of the Games" by David Filipov | Globe Staff, February 02, 2014
Back when they were little more than a five-ringed gleam in Vladimir Putin’s eye, the Sochi Olympics were already freighted with huge expectations.
Turning a Communist-era spa town into a Black Sea version of Miami Beach was just the tip of the iceberg. Russia was to set the bar for future Winter Olympic hosts on how to hold friendly, safe Games in cutting-edge facilities.
Sochi would not just make a statement that Putin’s Russia has arrived as a leading world power; the Games would validate the Russia Putin has molded in the 14 years since he came to power.
“Putin has invested some personal prestige in this, and has tried to make some personal promises that this one will result in the glory of Russia itself,” said Stephen Sestanovich, who was US ambassador-at-large for the former Soviet Union from 1997 to 2001.
But just days before the Opening Ceremony, the image of the modern Russia emerging in the worldwide spotlight has revealed snafus, allegations of corruption, casual prejudice, and shabby service associated with the image of the old Soviet Union: backward, authoritarian, out of step, and out of touch.
Gee, who would want to do that?
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Operation Mockingbird
Why Am I No Longer Reading the Newspaper?
I guess my jewspaper and its mouthpiece must not like Putin for running the Jewish mafia out of Russia and stalling the Jewish war agenda in Syria and Iran. That's the narrative impre$$ion I'm getting.
“In Sochi we see developed Putinism in its full form,” Sestanovich said. “We see the bombast, we see the corruption, we see the hostility to foreigners, we see the attempt to jump historical stages to catch up.”
Translation: He's acting like Israel!
Instead of basking in worldwide appreciation for achieving his ambitious Olympic goals, the Russian president is finding himself on the defensive.
Then all the bad pre$$ has accomplished its mission.
Instead of fielding praise for his personal oversight of the high-speed rail links from shimmering Olympic venues to upscale shopping centers, Putin has been forced to fend off reports of massive cost overruns, cronyism, and graft.
I was told the site was a piece of shit.
And we have cost overruns here in AmeriKa, too -- usually attached to overpriced war-profiteer products.
As state-run television floods the airwaves with footage of cutting-edge arenas, residents of Sochi are complaining about infuriating traffic backups, chronic power outages, and environmental damage caused by heavy-handed official disregard for ordinary people.
It's the same in every nation that hosts, even AmeriKa!
Related:
"The lasting memories of the NY/NJ Super Bowl will be mild weather — it was downright balmy at game time — and great cooperation from local officials. Transportation was no problem for the media members getting back and forth between Manhattan and New Jersey throughout the week, thanks to police escorts. However, multihour waits on game day for trains on the New Jersey transit system were severely problematic."
I suppose that would be Chris Christie's fault.
The Russians must not be giving the over-pampered and over-privileged a$$hole AmeriKan media taxpayer-funded escorts.
Instead of a celebration of Russia’s economic might, the prelude to the Games has focused on a protest of Russia’s record on human rights, in particular a law that criminalizes public expression of support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender relationships.
Only in my pos newspaper.
A number of Western leaders have shunned the Games, denying Putin the implicit confirmation he seems to crave — of membership in their club.
Now this asshole reporter is a psychiatrist!
President Obama has sent a delegation that pointedly includes prominent gay athletes, including tennis great Billie Jean King.
If I were a Russian I would be glad that asshole isn't going.
That struck a nerve, said Masha Gessen, a Russian and American journalist and LGBT activist, and author of “The Man Without a Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin.”
“This is important,” Gessen said. “This is his party.”
That Putin was blindsided by the powerful and negative international reaction to the law, Gessen said, speaks volumes about his ability to gauge public opinion outside Russia.
That makes me LAUGH after he STEPPED IN and STOPPED the INVASION of SYRIA!
Yeah, he's really worried about "international reaction."
(International reaction in my jewspaper is nothing more than what the EUSraeli Empire thinks)
The democracies of Northern Europe and North America, among the most tolerant societies for LGBT rights, supply many of the athletes, and compete for the lion’s share of medals, at the Winter Games.
I think I'm going to turn this game off, folks.
Russia’s law forms the underpinnings of what Gessen called Russia’s first “national idea” in 25 years since the end of Soviet Communism.
“Russia is the light that promotes traditional values as opposed to the darkness coming from the West, protecting the Russian Orthodox family against the ultimate enemy, which happens to be gays and lesbians,” she said.
That's the way I see the world these days.
Russian officials’ tone-deaf response to the outcry — for example the assertion by Sochi’s mayor, Anatoly Pakhomov, when asked by the BBC about gays, that “We do not have them in our city” — has only made matters worse.
Can't hear you, Globe.
Putin in a recent interview with Russian and Western television reporters defended the law, noting that some American states have laws that attempt to ban gay sex.
“Anyway, we have got the message,” he said. “And I am telling you that none of our guests will have any problems.”
I don't want to talk or hear about the issue anymore.
Beyond the political disconnect between Russia and the West over gay rights, Sochi always promised to be an Olympic project with a high degree of difficulty, thanks to its location in the warmest part of a country famous for its bitter cold, a few hundred miles from the woodland bases of Islamic terrorists who have vowed to cover these Games in blood.
The estimated $51 billion price tag, the most expensive Olympics ever held, and more expensive than the last 21 Winter Games combined, was far greater than the $12 billion Putin predicted would be spent back in 2007.
Official explanations have varied from justification of the remarkable cost of installing state-of-the-art security and transportation routes to make the Games safe and well run, to Putin’s bland assertion that no more than $7 billion was spent.
Did I mention how sick and tired of the pot-hollering-kettle whoreporate media I am?
Two recent reports by opposition leaders have instead asserted that the cost of Sochi was bloated by the lack of fair competition and the secret doling out of contracts to Putin insiders. The authors of a report last May asserted that $30 billion had been stolen, a claim denied by the Russian government.
In other words, it was like an AmeriKan Olympics.
On Thursday, ABC News reported that Russia secured the 2014 Games with help from Russian businessman Gafur Rakhimov, whom US authorities assert is tied to heroin trafficking.
The one dealer in the world not working for the CIA.
First U.S. bitching about cooperation after ignoring the Russian warnings regarding 9/11 and the Marathon, and now this!
Rakhimov, who is under criminal indictment in Uzbekistan, confirmed that he played a role in helping Russia through his contacts in Central Asian Olympics organizations.
Despite the massive, state-run effort to modernize Sochi in time for the Olympics — “It’s as though [former Soviet dictator Josef] Stalin decided to build Las Vegas, and all at once,” Sestanovich quipped — workers are still hastily putting on the finishing touches. Some hotels lack hot water, and there are no cafeterias or toilets for workers in some Olympic venues.
Oh, now we see why Putin is getting the hatchet job from the Globe cretin. He doesn't like his room!
Entering Sochi is like crossing a border between two countries, with extensive searches and lines of cars that stretch for miles.
In another society, the traffic snarls, severe restrictions on movement, and other inconveniences might be front-page news. But the Kremlin’s control over the mass media outlets where most Russians get their news ensures that only a positive message will get out, even if people do not necessarily believe it, or read information on the Internet that contradicts it.
Speaking of controlled media that only puts out a positive me$$age:
Six Zionist Companies Own 96% of the World's Media
Declassified: Massive Israeli manipulation of US media exposed
Operation Mockingbird
Why Am I No Longer Reading the Newspaper?
Any questions as to why I'm tired of reading this rank rot that passes for Amerikan journalism, and why I no longer believe it -- especially when I can read information on the Internet that exposes their horse shit lies (hi, readers)?
“It is universally assumed that corruption is pervasive and nothing can be done about it,” said Maria Lipman, a political analyst at the Carnegie Moscow Center think tank. “A solid majority of Russians prefer the status quo to change even if they are not happy with what they see around them. There’s a very strong sense that ‘change’ — especially political turmoil caused by whistle-blowers and troublemakers — is likely to make things worse, not better.”
That is what has happened here in AmeriKa! Every time we vote for "change" things get worse!
Sochi, of course, does present a challenge that goes beyond the threat to Putin’s international prestige: The possibility of terrorist attacks, a concern increased by recent reports of “black widow” suicide bombers trying to infiltrate the city and an ominous video purporting to be made by the suicide bombers who killed 34 people in Volgograd, a major city 400 miles inland from Sochi.
See: Black Widow Coverage Wilted
That's what happens to weak webs of propaganda and lies!
Russian organizers have assembled a massive security presence and implemented a lockdown of the Olympic village and venues that Sochi’s Olympics chief said last week made it the world’s “most secure venue.”
Analysts have suggested that any terrorist would probably be focused on softer targets away from the heavily guarded Olympic venues. But Putin has proven able to not just weather deadly attacks in the past; he has used them to justify greater concentration of power in the Kremlin. And recent attacks, Lipman said, have been met with the same “general acquiescence and the status-quo mentality.”
Hey, AmeriKa's leaders do the same thing!
“If, God forbid, there’s an attack in Sochi or elsewhere in Russia,” she said, “I can’t see just how the reaction would be different.”
I don't think he will have anything to do with it.
--more--"
Then again, I may be wrong:
"Olympic security in Sochi keeps it low-key; ‘Ring of steel’ pledge not on everyone’s lips" by David Filipov | Globe Staff, February 04, 2014
SOCHI, Russia — The scowling security guy in the camouflage outfit pointed at the reporter’s gray bag and demanded to know what it contained.
As opposed to the friendly AmeriKan thug or goon.
Fuck Filipov!
A laptop, the reporter said, and started to unzip the pocket.
“Don’t worry,” the man said, placing a hand on the zipper. “I believe you.”
Say what? After all, this was a train station in Sochi, just three days before the opening ceremonies of the Winter Games, and just a few feet from the barrier of the massive security zone that is supposed to shield thousands of Olympians, their guests, and their spectators from the threat of terror.
The casual approach to the search of that bag came as a shock, given the solemn and frequent assurances from Russian officials, facing threats from Islamic militants, that these Olympics would be terror-proof. And in the course of a day of travel around Sochi, there were other encounters that seemed to contradict Vladimir Putin’s vow of an impenetrable “ring of steel.”
The feeling here is the Russians know exactly what "Al-CIA-Duh" is, and with Amerikan athletes now on site....
Russia is walking a fine line between ensuring a safe Olympics but not spoiling the spirit of the Games by turning Sochi into an armed encampment.
Related: Bringing the Olympics to Boston
I would prefer not to after all the Marathon tyranny, thanks. Kind of spoiled the race.
Russian officials have suggested that the number of security personnel would top 40,000, or maybe even reach 70,000, and the US State Department has warned Americans to expect frequent document checks and encounters with security personnel.
But Sochi Olympic organizers have made a clear effort to give the security force, at least the one visible Monday, a friendly face.
Oh, do they have government cock-suckers like the AmeriKan media and Globe?
Instead of wearing urban camouflage and toting assault rifles, as Russian police on patrol do in many cities of the restive North Caucasus, security officers in Sochi are wearing purposefully unimposing plum-colored uniforms, their sidearms tucked away in holsters.
The Russian security effort got a vote of support Monday from Thomas Bach, the president of the International Olympic Committee, who said at a briefing that “we have confidence with the Russian authorities.”
But the question most often asked has been whether Russia will be able to make Sochi secure enough, not whether the people providing security will be vigilant enough....
Most of them seemed vigilant, too, except for one particular crew at the station in central Sochi....
There is where your terrorist attack will take place, and I'm going to devour the media coverage of it.
Then again, if it doesn't happen I won't be watching a minute of it. Not very vigilant of me, huh?
None of the security personnel at the station would answer questions about the incident, except one, who told the reporter to look for the official in the yellow jacket who hands out free tickets to media with Olympic credentials. The companion, who lacked Olympic accreditation, was told to go buy a ticket.
The understated police presence was felt elsewhere in Sochi on a sunny Monday afternoon. The amiable guards at the checkpoints at entrances to the hotels that house thousands of media members seemed to let in any driver who asked nicely. On Lenin Street, the heavily traveled main route to central Sochi, each bus stop was watched over by a police officer armed with a pistol and a billy club.
In other words, Sochi is NOT SAFE! I would LEAVE RIGHT NOW if I were Filipov!
There were none of the heavily armed troops manning checkpoints that clog traffic circles in cities throughout Russia, though this could change before the opening ceremonies on Friday.
On Monday, traffic police in Sochi prevented cars without the badge marked with an infinity sign — the all access pass for Olympic traffic — from entering restricted areas. One officer stopped a vehicle that did not carry a lesser credential that allows the use of the high-speed lanes designated for Olympic traffic, but let the driver go after a brief chat. A couple of mounted police on loan from Moscow amiably posed for pictures outside the towering, unfinished amusement park nicknamed “Russian Disneyland.” A pair of Cossacks in traditional wool hats and knee-high boots politely refused to be photographed.
And a traffic cop shooed an unaccredited car away from the driveway into the massive media center, and instead gestured to the driver to park by the side of the road — only a couple hundred feet from the heavily guarded entrance, a proximity that brought a gasp of surprise from a reporter who had attended the Olympics in Vancouver, London, and Beijing.
I'm tired of this guy's bitching, sorry.
Sochi residents, incidentally, seemed unsurprised by the relatively relaxed mood on the peripheries of the ring of steel....
Yes, the residents are "incidental" and now not complaining about all the problems i read about above. Whatever!
What locals are familiar with is the door-to-door security checks that police carried out in the months before the Games....
Related: Boston Bombers Police State in America
Going door-to-door!
Alexander Popkov, a human rights lawyer in Sochi, and other rights activists say they are worried that the real security crackdown will come after the Olympics, and will be directed at whistle-blowers who have accused authorities of wrongfully deporting the migrant workers who built many of the Olympic venues, or drew attention to environmental neglect resulting from the construction for the Games.
The agenda-pushing never stops!
Related: Obama has Prosecuted More Whistleblowers than All Other Presidents COMBINED
Well, there are whistleblowers and then there are whistleblowers.
One of Popkov’s clients, environmental activist Yevgeny Vitishko, already serving a three-year suspended sentence for spray-painting an insult on the regional governor’s fence, was sentenced to 15 days of detention Monday for swearing at a bus stop.
At least it isn't swearing on a blog. Then I would be in trouble.
--more--"
You know, with all the problems and stuff I wonder how Filipov will have a good time. He must be angry the Globe sent him to cover the Olympics. Who would want that sucky assignment!
And if all this propaganda hasn't made you hate Putin, this will:
"Rescuers mobilize as Sochi tries to kill off stray dogs" by David Filipov | Globe Staff, February 05, 2014
SOCHI, Russia — At the bottom of a steep muddy path to a fetid swamp, a rudimentary plywood-and-posterboard kennel looked like the last place anyone who cares about dogs would want to keep one.
But for the 14 formerly stray dogs bouncing and barking in the kennel Tuesday, these makeshift quarters represent salvation. The city of Sochi has hired a pest-control company to kill homeless animals by the hundreds, all in an effort to clean up the streets in advance of the Winter Games.
So Vlada Provotorova, a local dentist and a diehard dog person, recruited some friends and went on the ultimate rescue mission....
Yup, Putin must be a cat guy.
It’s a losing battle, and Provotorova and her friends know it.
So is reading the Globe and expecting to find decent journalism and not insulting elitist drivel.
She estimates that between 5,000 and 7,000 dogs have been killed in the current cull, a figure no one in City Hall was available to confirm or deny. She and her friends have rescued “no more than 100.”
“It makes me sad,” she said.
You know, I'm not supporting the killing of innocent life, particularly animals; however, that is overridden by the hatred (yes, we've reached that point) of this rank rot propaganda I'm seeing every day in my Boston Globe. That is what makes me sad. A shit jewspaper.
Mass killings of strays may seem inhumane for Americans, who live in a world where a celebrity like NFL quarterback Michael Vick served prison time for his involvement in the killing of dogs.
Well, they died because of the pit bull fights. He didn't actually kill them with his own two hands.
But the practice is not uncommon in Russia, despite pleas by activists that authorities find more humane ways of handling strays. Sochi city officials had planned to kill 2,000 dogs last summer, but an international outcry caused the city to drop the plan.
And where is the international outcry against the EUSraeli Empire that has KILLED MILLIONS of PEOPLE?!!!
SIGH!!
But with the Olympics coming up fast, the city hired Basya Service to engage in the “catching and disposal” of city dogs, according to a copy of the contract acquired by the Globe.
Alexei Sorokin, the director of the company, told the Associated Press that thousands of strays roam the streets of Sochi, “biting children,” and that one stray walked in on a rehearsal of Friday’s Olympic opening ceremony.
“God forbid something like this happens at the actual opening ceremony,” Sorokin told the agency. “This will be a disgrace for the whole country.”
Translation: It would be a disgrace for President Vladimir Putin, who has staked his prestige on these Games improving Russia’s image as a modern economic power. So Sorokin got the go-ahead to act.
I'm so glad the Globe can decode intent and read the minds of others!
But one international animal protection group said the killing of dogs would backfire.
I'll bet this is the last I'll see of it in my Globe.
“Killing street dogs, whether through poisoning, shooting or other means, is not only inhumane, but ineffective,” said Andrew Rowan, chief executive officer of Humane Society International, which advocates mass sterilization, vaccination, and community education to solve the problem of strays.
Then he is working for a pharmaceutical, isn't he?
“While Russia has the world’s attention with the Olympics around the corner, the current dog-killing program will only rouse an international outcry and taint the image of the country.”
Speaking of taint:
Detroit Gone to the Dogs
Say again?
Of course, the idea that Detroit is a world class city is a dream. The reality is it is a shit hole.
--more--"
Oh, btw, if you SEND the STRAY DOG to an animal shelter in AmeriKa and no one claims them, they KILL THEM!
Thank God "we" ain't as bad as Putin!
Moo!
Globe isn't winning a gold with me.
"Thousands march in Moscow protest" Associated Press, February 03, 2014
MOSCOW — Several thousand protesters marched through central Moscow on Sunday to call for the release of 20 people who were arrested after clashes between Russian police and demonstrators in May 2012.
Putin allowed a protest?
Related: Sunday Globe Specials: Russian Protests Are Fun
Not for everyone.
Some of them face up to 10 years in prison if convicted for the protest, held on Bolotnaya Square on the eve of President Vladimir Putin’s inauguration to a third term as president.
Putin’s return to the presidency saw the passing of new laws aimed at cracking down on antigovernment protests and restricting nongovernmental organizations.
The protesters marched Sunday with portraits of the jailed protesters and a banner stretching across the street reading: ‘‘Freedom to the Bolotnaya heroes, the hostages of Putin.’’
Some also carried Ukrainian flags to show their support for the antigovernment protesters in neighboring Ukraine, where demonstrations have been going on for more than two months.
Related: Regime Change in Ukraine Scheduled For Sochi Olympics
The protests are occurring as Putin is counting down the final days until Friday’s start of the Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Thousands of journalists will be arriving in Sochi on Monday, and about 11,000 overall are expected to be covering the Olympics. Spectators are expected to arrive later in the week.
And they are going to find rotten hotel rooms and accommodations!
--more--"
You know what could really ruin the party? The weather!
"Cold grips parts of Europe; 4 die in Bulgaria" by VESELIN TOSHKOV | Associated Press, January 30, 2014
SOFIA, Bulgaria — A cold spell and snowstorms are sweeping across parts of central and eastern Europe, disrupting power supplies, travel, and schools. Four people have died in Bulgaria over the past few days, and Wednesday was the coldest day of the year in Moscow.
In Bulgaria, heavy snow and strong winds have left dozens of villages in the eastern half of the Balkan country without electricity and water.
I think the Globe jerk should stop complaining about his room!
A 76-year-old man died after getting stuck in a snowdrift in the village of Povet, near the Bulgarian-Turkish border. Three other men have died in weather-related incidents in eastern villages in the last two days. Many roads are closed to traffic while rescue teams try to bring food supplies to remote areas. Hundreds of schools remain closed, and the main Black Sea port of Varna was shut because of high winds.
Didn't this happen in the balkans last year?
Snow fell in the central Adriatic coast in Croatia, which is highly unusual because the region has a Mediterranean climate. The ice and snow in the seaside town of Sibenik prompted authorities to close schools there. Heavy snow also fell in Montenegro, causing road traffic problems.
Must be global warming.
Temperatures dipped to minus-8 Fahrenheit in Moscow and minus-24 in surrounding regions, making it the coldest day of the year in the Russian capital.
The temperature was 10 degrees below average for this time of year and expected to drop further. Many Muscovites, however, welcomed the sun and blues skies of a real Russian winter after the gray clouds that hung over the capital in December and January.
Here in AmeriKa we were only shown pictures of gray days in Russia for decades during the Cold War. I kid you not!
--more--"
Maybe that is why the black widows wilted. Too damn cold!
Also see: Why Russians love biathlon
I'm tired of my jewspaper and its endless Russian bashing. Sorry.
Enjoy the Games, folks!
