Due to the high price of the construction at Sochi, some investors are worried that they will not be able to recoup their costs. In order to avoid default, some have advocated for the construction of casinos and the creation of a “gambling zone.” However, President Putin is against the idea. — Ed. Russian President […]
With the Twitter hashtag “#SochiProblems” trending worldwide, the Russian President is expressing concerns about the state of non-Olympic facilities, facilities that were supposed to ensure that the infrastructure built for the Olympics is properly utilized afterwards. — Ed. Russian President Vladimir Putin is concerned about construction in Sochi that is not related to the Olympic […]
Welcome to The Interpreter’s Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Liveblog. Here, we will be covering the news away from the ski jumps and ice rinks, where activists are being arrested, corruption looms large, and the terrorist threat is very real. See all of our Sochi coverage here, and read Friday’s Sochi Liveblog: The Games Begin. Updates […]
Pravda, the official paper of the Communist Party, says that the coverage of Sochi has been unfair to Russia, as Western journalists mirror the biases of their countries against the Russian state, the Russian people, and the Russian leader. – Ed. Perhaps never before in history news about the upcoming Olympics had less to do […]
Welcome to The Interpreter’s Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Liveblog, day two. Click here to see yesterday’s Sochi Liveblog: The 48 Hour Dash to the Opening Ceremonies. Updates are below, so make sure to regularly refresh this screen. 2254 GMT: Andrei Soldatov has written an excellent summary of the state of the FSB’s electronic surveillance efforts […]
The Sochi Winter Olympics start in just two days. This week, The Interpreter’s managing editor James Miller speaks to Boston College Professor Dr. Matt Sienkiewicz about whether Russia is ready for the Olympics, what to look out for during the Olympics, and whether or not the games will be safe from terrorism. Also see today’s liveblog of the run-up to the […]
With the opening ceremony now almost exactly 48 hours away, officials and construction workers in Sochi are now desperately hurrying to bring the Olympic facilities on line. Journalists, who have flooded Sochi in the last day so, have been met with clear evidence of this chaotic bolt for completion. Our liveblog continues here. 0004 […]
As Friday’s opening ceremony draws near, the Institute of Modern Russia, of which The Interpreter is a special project, has launched a comprehensive and interactive website detailing the myriad cases of corruption and controversies surrounding the Olympic Games in Sochi. The website, available in both English and Russian, presents “exclusive information on 26 Olympic-related objects, including […]
Putin and Russia seem to have a seemingly endless ability to spend money to support the country’s political aspirations. Whether it’s the mindboggling $50 billion for Putin’s pet project on the Sochi Olympics (up from Putin’s initial estimate of $12 billion, with which he personally used to lobby the IOC in Guatemala), the $2 billion […]
A pro-Kremlin Russian media outlet, Kommersant, has held a question and answer session with the EU’s ambassador to Russia, Vygaudas Ušackas, in which they discuss relations between Moscow and Brussels. This is the first part of the interview. The second part can be found here. – Ed. Several days before the latest Russian-European Union (EU) […]
