The Anti-Corruption Foundation presents the project «SOCHI 2014: An Encyclopedia of Spending»**. The Sochi Olympics became a true “project of the century” for Russia; the entire country worked for it. All Olympic-related spending was given absolute priority: science, education, and healthcare were pushed firmly to the back of the line for budget funds in favor of Vladimir Putin’s personal project—holding the Olympics in his favorite city, Sochi.
For quite a long time yet, we will be discussing and assessing the long-term impact of the Olympics on the country’s economy. We will be comparing the positive effect (if one can be found) with the effect of the already obvious redistribution of funds in favor of this mega-project. Expectations on that front are fairly pessimistic. It’s no surprise that this joke is now so popular on the Russian internet: "Twenty years from now, history textbooks will include a chapter titled: ‘The Period of National Economic Recovery After the Sochi Olympics, 2014–2024’". The ACF decided to launch this project—quite a difficult and labor-intensive one—primarily because we got tired of watching our officials juggle the numbers for Olympic construction projects. Sensing the obvious public dissatisfaction with the cost of the Olympics and the repeated corruption-driven inflation of prices for the facilities, these “public servants,” led by Putin, decided to push their Sochi 2014 myth through every information channel: the Olympics cost only 214 billion rubles, most of the money was private, and no one knows of any reliable facts of corruption: "The total figure for Olympic preparations is known: 214 billion rubles. If you divide that by today’s exchange rate of 33, you get the equivalent amount in dollars. Of those 214 billion, about 100 billion is state money; everything else is money from private companies. Above all, of course, it was invested in hotel infrastructure. By the way, we created more than 40—somewhere around 41,000 to 43,000—new hotel places, essentially completely new ones. As part of developing the resort, this is an extremely important thing. These purposes were financed with funds from our companies; these were private investments.” http://www.kremlin.ru/news/20080 "So far, we do not see any major, large-scale manifestations of corruption in the implementation of the Sochi project. There is what I already mentioned: attempts by executors and contractors to inflate prices. But, I repeat once again, this happens in every country in the world… If you have objective data (about corruption), please give it to us as soon as possible. So far there is none; no one is providing any.” http://ria.ru/sochi2014_around_games/20140119/990017022.html One way or another, all officials are now repeating this line and these figures: Kozak, Medvedev, and so on. This brazen lie is almost impressive in its audacity. Even Goebbels would have whistled in admiration. Those 214 billion are actually less than even the very first estimate for the Olympics—316 billion rubles—named in the resolution “On the Federal Target Program ‘Development of Sochi as a Mountain Climate Resort (2006–2014)’,” or the 12 billion dollars Putin spoke of in Guatemala in 2007, and every child in the country knows the cost rose many times over. Putin’s 214 billion is even less than the cost of the recent Universiade in Kazan (228 billion rubles), an event on an incomparably smaller scale. Television does not blush with shame over Putin’s lies, and propagandists on the public payroll often get carried away. Apparently, in another year, as the lie continues to evolve, we will hear a version like this: "The Sochi Olympics did not cost the budget a single kopeck; on the contrary, they brought in so much money that every Russian citizen (and especially every veteran) can use it to buy a discounted Lada Priora with velour upholstery, power windows, and tinted glass. And also a Sharp dual-cassette boombox." So here it is: http://sochi.fbk.info/ Everyone who wants to truly understand how much the Olympics cost, what money paid for them, how much the facilities cost, and who exactly those successful and fortunate businessmen were who received billion-ruble contracts and became the real winners of the Olympics before they even began, should visit this site. This was a very long, painstaking, and tedious job, but we collected documentation and links for every figure used in the project. A lot of numbers and information came “from sources,” but we decided not to use that material, even though it would have made the picture look even more striking. The site is available in Russian and English (thanks to The Interpreter for helping prepare the English version of the site). Take a look—after all, it was you who paid for this remarkable spectacle of unprecedented budgetary generosity toward “Putin’s businessmen.” The propaganda box can say all it wants about an Olympics that cost 214 billion rubles, but you will know the true financial formula of the Games:
822 billion from the federal budget + 33 billion from regional budgets + 343 billion from state-owned companies + 249 billion in VEB loans + 53 billion in private money. And if some state propagandist tries to feed you false figures about budget spending, you can send them a link to our Excel file with the calculations, where every budget figure is backed up by a line from the budget execution law. ACF volunteer Artyom Torchinsky combed through thousands of pages of budget execution laws from 2008 to 2012 and extracted the relevant lines. There is no getting around the figure of 822 billion in direct budget injections. When they tell you about the wonderful private investments made by oligarchs, you will immediately be able to find Potanin’s “Rosa Khutor” on the map on our website
85% of whose funding came from the state-owned VEB bank. When that money is not repaid—and everyone already agrees it will not be—the state Finance Ministry will compensate the state-owned VEB. When they tell you about oligarch Deripaska’s noble efforts in building the Olympic Village with “his own” money, you can go and see that 88% of that “own” money was once again borrowed from VEB, and the construction cost was so outrageous that one guest place in the Olympic Village cost as much as a two-room apartment in Moscow. When they tell you that Olympic contracts were awarded fairly, you can recall our winner in the “classic kickback scheme” category:
The “gold” went to Vladimir Putin’s closest friend and “wallet,” Arkady Rotenberg, who grabbed 227 billion rubles’ worth of contracts. Not long ago, Rotenberg was a judo coach, and now—as you can see—he is a successful builder. When Putin and Medvedev start lying again that they know nothing about any facts of corruption, you may feel like shouting straight at the TV: what about the 28-year-old son-in-law of Krasnodar Region Governor Tkachyov, who, as part of Olympic construction, built the mysterious “Sochi Park” for 9.14 billion rubles and won our “paired contract” nomination?
Or what about the son of Olympstroy’s vice president, who built this state corporation’s office for 5 billion rubles—with money from a VEB loan—and somehow managed to make it 30% more expensive than comparable construction in Moscow? When Yakunin—the lord of offshore companies and fur-storage scandals, and Russia’s top railway boss—again says that nothing was stolen from the main Olympic construction project, the combined Adler–Krasnaya Polyana road and rail link, you will be able to look once more at our careful and conservative calculations: we did not compare the road as a whole, but broke it down into standard sections and compared each of those sections with the most expensive existing equivalent. Even then, it still turned out that Yakunin’s road cost 1.8 times more than it should have. Such price inflation cannot be explained by anything other than corruption. Need it be added that the contractors were once again “Putin’s wallets,” Timchenko and Rotenberg? If “1.8 times more expensive” does not sound like much to you, let me remind you that we are talking about 258 billion rubles. In short, you will find a great deal of useful and instructive information on our website. I also want to say separately that this project is not against the Olympics. It*** is for the Olympics and against theft. After all, we could have held a spectacular—the most expensive—Olympics and at the same time invested enormous sums in the country’s development. But instead, those enormous sums were deposited into the Swiss bank accounts of Putin’s gang. It is always worth remembering that in Russia, according to the latest population census: - 2.8 million people (one in every 50) live in communal apartments; 2.6 million people live in dormitories; only 44% of Russia’s houses and apartments have all basic amenities (electricity, heating, hot water, a toilet, a bath/shower, and a kitchen); 1.5 million households have no electricity; 13 million people live without hot water; 8.8 million people have no toilet in the home; 12 million use outdoor pit toilets.
So, friends, keep the broader picture of the country’s situation in mind as you study all this. We must not allow this to be done to us. We must not silently watch these ghouls line their pockets under patriotic slogans while the country lives in poverty. It seems very important to me to bring this real arithmetic of “Sochi 2014” and its main “heroes” to every citizen of Russia. The ACF would be very grateful if you shared this link on your social networks. If you have Twitter, you can retweet right here:
And I also want to thank the ACF staff and volunteers who worked on the project (in an order that means absolutely nothing): Nikolai Andreev, Georgy Alburov, Polina Belyakova, Lev Biryukov, Anna Biryukova, Anna Veduta, Tatyana Vinogradova, Suren Gazaryan, Vladimir Dergachyov, Anna Dodonova, Grigory Zhizhilkin, Vladimir Ashurkov, Anton Zayniev, Maria Zakharova, Fyodor Zvyagintsev, Galina Koposova, Bogdan Kravtsov, Nikita Kulachenkov, Elena Marus, Andrei Mishchenkov, one secret female volunteer, Dmitry Petrov, Roman Rubanov, Alexander Smetanka, Anna Teregulova, Elena Tolstykh, Anatoly Shashkin, Valery Zolotukhin, Artyom Torchinsky, Alexei Shunkov, Yulia Navalnaya, Sergei Chikhachyov, and the The Interpreter team. If you like what the Anti-Corruption Foundation does, remember that it operates on your money—we exist thanks to donations from private individuals.