Sunday, November 21, 2010
Sochi: Just 4 Years Away
..and I'm sure that an avalanche of stories will be provided. I'm been a tad lazy about following up on the happenings over in Russia as regards the Winter Olympic preparations. Back in July of this year, President Medvedev had launched an investigation on the bribery and criminal activity regarding the Sochi preparations. Seems that the announcement has had an effect.
"..the increased scrutiny of officialdom has caused the price of bribes to accelerate. Russia's Interior Ministry, which controls the police, announced this week that the average bribe in cases it investigates has grown tenfold in the past two years and doubled in the past six months alone to about $1,500". So, the police will be building larger dachas on the coastline thanks to President Medvedev's initiative.
The linked article goes on to state, "Basically, the number of bribes may have gone down but the sums of cash changing hands has gone up astronomically," says Masha Lipman, editor of the Moscow Carnegie Center's Pro et Contra journal. "It would make anyone in Russia laugh if you claimed Medvedev's anti-corruption drive has been successful. So, rather than claim success, what he can do is this one-off investigation into one of his own officials."
This is good to know, as far as Sochi's police force is concerned; they would not want too many of their colleagues living too close to them on the Sochi Riviera.
"..the increased scrutiny of officialdom has caused the price of bribes to accelerate. Russia's Interior Ministry, which controls the police, announced this week that the average bribe in cases it investigates has grown tenfold in the past two years and doubled in the past six months alone to about $1,500". So, the police will be building larger dachas on the coastline thanks to President Medvedev's initiative.
The linked article goes on to state, "Basically, the number of bribes may have gone down but the sums of cash changing hands has gone up astronomically," says Masha Lipman, editor of the Moscow Carnegie Center's Pro et Contra journal. "It would make anyone in Russia laugh if you claimed Medvedev's anti-corruption drive has been successful. So, rather than claim success, what he can do is this one-off investigation into one of his own officials."
This is good to know, as far as Sochi's police force is concerned; they would not want too many of their colleagues living too close to them on the Sochi Riviera.
Labels: 2014: So SO SOCHI
Monday, March 01, 2010
Sochi 2014
Direct quotes from a travel brochure on Sochi, site of Winter Olympics 2014 (Temperature on Sunday was 66 degrees F)
"Multimedia, Sochi News July 17th, 2008
Tornadoes are actually quite common in Sochi, though are not as large as the ones destroying whole towns in USA. However, in Sochi they often cause havoc as well. Twisters in Sochi usually form over the Black Sea during stormy weather, then coming down crushing at the city. Two years ago in August, strong tornado came in destroying residential houses (our family friend’s house was almost completely destroyed — and these are brick houses!), part of «Youzhnye Kultury» park, and many buses on overnight bus parking, causing public transportation interruption in Adler for the next few weeks"
From Sochi Travel Info -Travel the Russina Rivieria!
One of the amazing things about the Vancouver Olympics was the succesful way (in most cases) the Canadians dealt with the weather problems dealt to them on a daily basis. But even they did not have to deal with tornados. This should be interesting, most especially in the way things will be worded by the Soshi Olympic Committee when faced with meteorological events out of their hands.
Labels: 2014: So SO SOCHI
