File published in La Presse, September 25, 2010
MOSCOW - Sochi is currently a challenge Olympian. Taking short three years ago by obtaining surprise of the 2014 Winter Games, the Russian resort built in haste her Olympic dream. And nothing can stop the Russian government, who wish to e eyeful to re ste world. Neither a hunger strike citizens expropriated. Neither environmentalists who cry ecological disaster. Neither the explosion of costs just to drive up the bill for tens of billions of dollars.
On the main road to Krasnaya Polyana, the dust never has time to fall. Hundreds of trucks pass each day with a bang to transport materials needed for Olympic construction. "It may be temporary, but we do not live here temporarily!" Claudia gets carried away, fifty. Resident of the village has always been, she was indignant to see the serenity of Krasnaya Polyana Olympic swept away by the wave.
In 2014, it was in this mountain village 60 km from Sochi that all events will take place with snow. The tiny ski existing outdated now live in the shadow of four major Olympic complex. And the modest homes of the villagers must accustom the tallest hotels under construction.
"I'm against since the beginning. Everybody is against it, but nobody asked us our opinion," says Claudia while carrying her groceries. "They organized the games just to launder money!" she exclaims, exasperated, before disappearing into his car without disclosing his name.
A little later, Vyacheslav Soulimenko, 71, to be responsible "for progress", so for the Olympics. "But on the other hand, I fear for the environment. They have killed thousands of trees and animals have fled," said the hunter and tourist guide, sipping a beer in the middle afternoon on a park bench.
No games green
"We could have a Green Olympics, as the organizers had promised," believes his side Kaptsov Dmitri, a militant faction of the ecologist, a local environmental organization. "But the project ran into Russian reality."
According to him, to hold the Games without environmental consequences Russia should prepare at least four or five years before submitting his candidacy. However, after the speech of Vladimir Putin flamboyant in July 2007, the International Olympic Committee has taken on faith in the project dear to the country's strong man ... even though the city candidate at that time did not have any facilities necessary for the Games.
Taken aback by their victory, the organizers could not carry all the expertise necessary to minimize environmental impacts, says Dmitri Kaptsov. "Instead of respecting the laws, they change. If before it was a crime to cut some trees in an area now is completely legal." In 2007, green groups have managed to move the planned bobsleigh run, which would have destroyed the natural habitat of many animals. This was their only victory. After a brief collaboration, Greenpeace, WWF Ecologist Faction and turned their backs on the state company responsible for the work, Olympstroï.
"There has never been more attention devoted to environmental projects in Russia," says Alexandra Kasterine for its part, spokesman Olympstroï. It indicates that the damage caused to the environment will be offset by the addition of 20 000 hectares of protected forest to national park near Sochi.
For Green, the main environmental threat touches the river Mzymta. Along the river are being built alongside a new road and a railway to link the airport to the Olympic venues Krasnaya Polyana. "Half the city of Sochi as to drink," Dmitry Kaptsov concerned. At a cost of whopping 6.5 billion, the project includes 23 bridges and six tunnels for railway trains and automobiles.
This road and other "unexpected" charges have tripled the Olympics. In June, the Ministry of Regions has estimated that the private and public investment for the 242 facilities for the Games would total 950 billion rubles, or $ 31 billion.
Critics are pointing to the corruption that plagues the country to explain in part the cost explosion. A contractor accused in particular an official of the presidential administration have demanded 12% of the value of a contract in jars of wine. The officer was dismissed from his post in August and is facing criminal charges.
Hunger Strike
As for the main site of the Games, a few hundred meters from the Black Sea, stadiums and arenas are beginning to take shape. The passage of the Press three years ago, the lowlands of Imereti - as the locals call this area a few villages scattered about forty miles from the center city of Sochi - which were cornfield surrounded by some houses .
In his garden, Lyubov Fourssa has an amazing view on the skeleton of the future ice palace of 12,000 seats, which will host the speed skating short track and figure skating. But not for long. By December, she will leave her home.
It is part of a hundred families expropriated by the authorities. When the city presented its candidacy, however, assured her that no citizen would have to relocate.
After a hunger strike for 24 days in May, failing to receive visits required from Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, Ms Fourssa and eight other residents were able to meet with Olympic officials who promised them better compensation. Like most, she finally accepted a brand new house a few miles away in the nearby village of Nekrassovskoe.
Matioukha Alla's family did the same thing. And as the mother of three children, have been expropriated for their money. "Many families did not even have toilets in their former home," she said. Ms. Matioukha believed to have been useless anyway to resist the dream cherished by the Prime Minister Putin. "The Olympics is a state project. No matter what we'd said we would have been displaced," she says.
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Sochi pending future
slogan printed on the t-shirt most popular in Sochi summarizes the ambition of the city: "Sochi: city of the future". If the resort to the Future, because the Soviet past will always overshadow the present.
Sochi would be an international city, but foreigners are still a curiosity. And for good reason. Even the Russians increasingly deserting the subtropical resort, once darling pearl of the Black Sea to the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, whose. Only President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin insist on maintaining an official residence in the "summer capital" of Russia.
Service Russian
The explanation is simple: in Moscow, it is usually cheaper to fly to Egypt or Turkey. There, accommodation and meals are cheaper and better quality. And most importantly, the Russian tourist did not undergo the awful customer service of his fellow ...
is that despite the billions of dollars invested in it for the Games in 2014, traces of Soviet architecture and mentality are struggling to disappear in Sochi.
However, since the first visit of La Presse in Sochi in the summer of 2007, a month after getting win the Games, the city has definitely changed for the better. Several buildings have sprung up, the facades of apartment buildings have been renovated with fresh - and conditions - the state systems, electric and pipeline have been redone. And Sotchinois are unanimous on the main achievements of the Olympic preparation: the development of roads and widening, which required urban prowess.
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In Olympic bubble
If Sochi remains deeply Soviet Olympic tourists should still not too worried. The 2014 Winter Games will be held immune from the daily problems of the city. In a well orchestrated Olympic bubble.
Here's the scenario: arrival of visitors and athletes to the brand new airport, opened four months ago only. From there, a German train fast and modern transports in five minutes at the stadium and arenas in the Olympic Park Imereti lowland, a stone's throw from the beach. Direction of the mountains, always by train, we reached in half an hour the village Krasnaya Polyana, site of alpine skiing, nordic and freestyle and the bobsleigh track.
With any luck, winter 2014 will cover the village and neighboring peaks of a natural white coat. This was not the case last season, when the anger sweeping the Vancouver Olympic organizers because of the absence of snow ... No need to leave the Olympic venues to sleep either. Although bonded facilities, 23,000 hotel rooms are provided for tourists. Visitors
the bravest dare to venture into the center city of Sochi, to over 40 km of the facilities Olympics.
There, at least one socio-economic miracle in the next four years, they gather the real Russian life. In the eyes of a grandmother who tries to sell the products of his garden in a corner to add to his meager pension, or the gaudy richness reflected in the window of the Dior boutique. Away from the Olympic isolation. ***
Sochi
Population: 400,000 inhabitants.
Location: At about 1200 km southwest of Moscow, the city covers 150 km on the edge of the Black Sea, at the same latitude as Toronto.
Area: 3790 km2.
Industries: Tourism (4 million visitors per year) and health (300 spas).
Crowd expected for the games: 1 million visitors and 5,000 athletes.
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