Pussy Riot Members Arrested in Sochi

Police in the Russian Olympic host city of Sochi detained three members of the anti-Kremlin feminist punk group Pussy Riot and several journalists for questioning Tuesday about a theft in a local hotel. Human rights organizations said at least 10 people, including Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina, were detained Tuesday afternoon. Sochi rights activists Semyon Simonov and David Khakim and photojournalist Yevgeny Feldman were also detained, SochiWatch said. Police confirmed in a statement that they had taken a group of people to a police station in the nearby mountain resort town of Adler and were “interviewing everyone staying at this hotel” in connection with the theft. Tolokonnikova said on her Twitter account that she, Alyokhina and another female Pussy Riot activist were arrested while walking around Sochi after arriving in the city to record a protest video. “We’re in Sochi to carry out a Pussy Riot protest. The song is called ‘Putin Will Teach You to Love the Motherland,’” she wrote. She said officers had used force to detain them and that they had been forced to give statements without a lawyer.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140218/187652422/Pussy-Riot-Members-Arrested-in-Sochi.html

Putin Against Turning Sochi Into Gambling Zone

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that he was against turning Sochi into a gambling resort after the Olympics, because the Black Sea city would then lose its traditional holidaymakers – middle-class families with children. The Kommersant newspaper reported in December that the proposal had been voiced by Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev as the government sought ways to offset losses expected to be made by businesses that invested in the development of Sochi ahead of the Olympics. “We already have a gambling zone on the border between the Rostov Region and the Krasnodar Territory, and we even allowed them to access the Black Sea coast. In my opinion, it would be impractical to set up another zone in the region, although it would certainly make things better for investors,” Putin said at a meeting with members of the Sochi Olympic public council. The Kremlin banned gambling in Russia in 2009, except for four designated zones across the country. These zones are located in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, the country’s Far East, the southern Krasnodar territory and Siberia’s Altai region.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140211/187401920/Putin-Against-Turning-Sochi-Into-Gambling-Zone.html

Russian State TV Journalist Plagiarizes Nationalist Website

A reporter for Russia’s leading television channel admitted lifting huge chunks of a nationalist report about the Sochi Olympics’ opening ceremony for use in her own report, which aired over the weekend. Irada Zeinalova said she quoted a report by Kremlin-bashing web resource Sputnik & Pogrom without attribution for a broadcast on Channel One. The report “found such true and subtle words about the Olympics that you could wish for nothing better,” Zeinalova said in a Facebook post that later was deleted. She apologized for unattributed quoting and said she “faced the music” with channel management, which has not commented publicly about the scandal. Sputnik & Pogrom’s report, published Saturday, praised the ceremony for a pro-Western slant and avoidance of rampant conservatism that is at the core of the Kremlin’s current domestic policy. Both the website and the presenter touted the event, in particular, for presenting “aristocratic Russians” to the world, as opposed to kitschy stereotypes about balalaikas and “aggressive drunken soldiers.” Sputnik & Pogrom directly accused Channel One of plagiarism on Monday, but said no legal action was planned because the channel de-facto helped spread their ideas.

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140211/187397607/Russian-State-TV-Journalist-Plagiarizes-Nationalist-Website.html

Toilet Trouble at the Sochi Olympics

The bathrooms at the Sochi Olympic venues are the gift that just keeps on giving. First, a reporter discovered a Olympic bathroom stall with two toilets. Now, a Canadian snowboarder has shown everyone just what is — and isn’t — allowed in the bathrooms. Sebastien Toutant tweeted a photo on Saturday of a sign he saw in an Olympic bathroom. The sign basically points out that no, the Olympic bathrooms are not the place for your tomfoolery or shenanigans. Perhaps most notable among the frowned-upon actions: fishing.

http://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/toilet-fishing-apparently-banned-sochi-olympics
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-04/toilet-trouble-at-the-sochi-olympics.html
http://www.theguardian.com/sport/shortcuts/2014/feb/04/sochi-double-toilets-winter-olympics-2014 (photo)
http://youtu.be/cPMpTuQ9NOI (video)

Navalny Report Details Sochi Corruption Claims

Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny published an analysis of Russia’s spending for the 2014 Winter Olympics on Monday alleging that billions of dollars have been stolen and siphoned off for the benefit of top state officials. President Vladimir Putin is linked to the corruption through a $64.2 million road built to an exclusive ski resort, and lucrative contracts for businessmen with whom he reportedly enjoys close ties, according to the Navalny report. Allegations of large-scale corruption have dogged preparations for the Sochi Games, which are due to begin on February 7. Russian officials initially estimated that the Games would cost over $50 billion, making them the most expensive Olympics in the history of the event. However, Putin said earlier this month that only $6.5 billion had been spent on staging the competition, while the remainder was invested in local infrastructure development. Putin also denied that there was any large-scale corruption in the preparations for Sochi, and has challenged critics to produce evidence of graft.

http://en.ria.ru/sochi2014/20140127/186965218/Navalny-Report-Details-Sochi-Corruption-Claims.html

IOC Member: Corruption Took 1/3 of Sochi Spending

Senior International Olympic Committee member Gian Franco Kasper told Swiss journalists that one-third of the spending on the upcoming winter Olympics in Sochi has disappeared because of corruption. He said contracts were given to a "construction mafia" of businessmen closely linked to the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin. "The contracts were given to people who already had a foot in the door. We know it," Kasper said in an interview. The games are estimated to cost a record $51 billion in sports and infrastructure projects. Boris Nemtsov, a former Russian deputy prime minister-turned-Kremlin critic, alleged in a report released in May 2013 that up to $30 billion has been stolen in the run-up to the games.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/ioc-member-corruption-took-1-184554351--oly.html

Olympic Flame Dies Out in Kremlin

A lantern containing the Olympic flame arrived in Moscow's Red Square where it was greeted by Russian President Vladimir Putin, before it promptly blew out. After Mr Putin lit the cauldron, he said the "Olympic flame - symbol of the most important sports competition of this planet, symbol of peace and friendship - has arrived in Russia." The flame then set out on a ceremonial loop through the Kremlin, with 11 torchbearers participating in a relay. However, the flame, which was lit a week ago in Greece and flown to Moscow earlier on Sunday, went out. The glitch occurred when torchbearer, former world swimming champion and record holder Shavarsh Karapetyan, ran through a long passageway leading into the Kremlin, which apparently created a wind tunnel, extinguishing the flame. A security guard standing along the route, pulled out a lighter and re-lit the torch.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/10359412/Red-faces-in-Red-Square-as-Olympic-Torch-goes-out-after-arrival-in-Moscow.html (video)

http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-olympic-torch-kremlin-out/25128795.html