Is Russia More Right Wing Than The US?

[Formaldehyde]

Obviously no one can prove the amount of corruption, absent a successful criminal investigation. But you cannot ignore all the reports of the suspected corruption at these games. Here is part of a very quick on-line search for articles from legitimate news sources.

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/artic...n-and-terrorism-overshadow-the-sochi-olympics

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...at-russia-is-not-very-ready-for-the-olympics/

A clearly labeled opinion piece from some professor is hardly a "legitimate news source". And the other article didn't even mention corruption other than allegations from dubious sources.

 

[Yeekim]

It costs 6 billion USD

You aren't counting the money spent on infrastructure here, right?

 

[red_elk]

APEC summit in Vladivostok in 2012 was criticized for the same as Olympic games are. Enormous amount of money was spent on modernization of city infrastructure and thus overall cost of both projects was much bigger than the cost of similar events in Europe or North America. It gives the reason for the opposition to claim all that money (tens of billions USD) were stolen.

 

[Aleksey_aka_al]

You aren't counting the money spent on infrastructure here, right?

Spending money on region development is only relevant to Olympics because the authorities made it relevant and had came to the idea of Olympics to promote this development and get investment, in the first place.

The Sochi region is the main tourist attraction in Russia, of which you are surely aware. And there were problems of underdevelopment.

 

[Bamspeedy]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifes...9e37b4-9260-11e3-b46a-5a3d0d2130da_story.html

It was claimed russia would only spend 6.7 billion on the actual facilities, but most estimates on "the cost of the Olympics" include the infrastructure needed to host the Olympics, whether it is the estimate for the Sochi Olympics or the London Olympics.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Your own article calls into question this seemingly magical number that critics with their own clear agendas love to throw around:

Also, estimating the cost of the Games depends on how, and what, is counted.

Kozak said that the Russian government would spend $6.7 billion on Olympic facilities. He said Russia would invest another $16.7 billion in upgrading rails, roads and other infrastructure surrounding Sochi. That comes to $23.4 billion in 2013 money — massive, but not even halfway to $50 billion.

But not all of this spending was directly related to the Olympics, such as the construction of a Formula One racetrack in Sochi that reportedly cost $350 million. And as Kozak noted, some of this money would have been spent by public and private sources without the Olympics.

All of these nuances have been compressed, or perhaps overlooked, in the widely reported $50 (or $51) billion price tag. Attention-grabbing by itself, the big number seems to support a larger media theme: The Sochi Olympics are designed to showcase Putin’s autocratic rule and to make a grand statement about a newly assertive Russia. “For President Putin [staging the Games] is a chance to show off Russia as a resurgent superpower,” wrote the Times of London.

The questionable cost figure may also have gained currency in media accounts because it “resides on the cusp of plausibility,” a key factor in the spread of media-driven myths throughout the ages, said W. Joseph Campbell, a professor at American University and the author of “Getting It Wrong: Ten of the Greatest Misreported Stories in American Journalism.” Plus, he said, it’s easier for journalists to go with a figure repeated by other news outlets than to do “the very hard work required to develop an independent estimate.”

 

[Bamspeedy]

Your own article calls into question this seemingly magical number that critics with their own clear agendas love to throw around:

And did I ever claim the $51 billion was acurate?

If our Russian friend wants to post costs from other Olympics that did include the infrastructure costs than the Sochi Olympic estimate needs to include the infrastructure costs as well.

And the 50 billion estimate came from a Russian official.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Well, as along as it supposedly came from some unnamed "official", it must mean it is accurate.

As far as I'm concerned, the only "infrastructure" that really should be included are Olympics venues and facilities which directly support them which have no other purpose. Everything else is going to have other uses. And that certainly doesn't include an F1 track.