Sochi 2014: Navalny publishes “proof” of Putin’s friends’ corruption
Moscow (AsiaNews)
- Ten days before the opening of the Winter Games in Sochi, the Russian blogger
and opposition politician Alexei Navalny and his "Foundation for the fight
against corruption" have published the real costs of the global sporting
event with which Moscow aims to boost the
country's image abroad. The
project - which exposes corruption and conflicts of interest behind the
organization of the most expensive Olympic Games in history - is available on a
website, launched January 27 in Russian and English, and described by Navalny
as a sort of "encyclopedia of the costs".
Sochi.fbk.info
reports the costs incurred by the public and private sectors, for the
construction of 30 major projects for the Olympics, which start on 7 February in
the Black Sea region. Of these projects, at least 10 cost 1.5-2.5 times more
than a similar enterprise should. The
report also points the finger against private investors, highlighting apparent
conflicts of interest. "Most
of these investors - the statement announcing the launch of the site reads - are
directly or indirectly linked to the state". The
main contracts were awarded to Arkadi Rotenberg, a childhood friend of
President Vladimir Putin, who has signed contracts for a total of 6.9 billion
dollars. The
Navalny foundation has awarded him the gold medal in the "fraud" category
in a sarcastic and personal ranking, which recognizes public officials and
builders who have distinguished themselves for reasons as illaudable as corruption
and environmental damage.
The
analysis is based on surveys carried out by the Foundation, press materials and
studies carried out by activists on the ground.
The
first Olympics to be held in Russia after the collapse of the USSR will be the
most expensive in history. $
51 billion were officially spent on the Games. Of
this amount, Navalny claims 26.1 billion have come directly from the public
treasury, in contrast to the Kremlin's claims that the bulk of the expenditure
was incurred by individuals. The report
reveals that Moscow also includes state-controlled such as companies Gazprom
and Russian Railways among private entities. For
this reason, according to the calculations of the Foundation against corruption,
less than 4% of the total expenditure comes from really private companies.
Recently,
Putin had ruled out "serious cases of corruption" in preparations for
the 2014 Sochi Games, explaining how the rising costs were "physiological".
Andrey
Miroshnichenko , an independent analyst interviewed by the New York Times said he doubted that the Navalny initiative would lead
to a meaningful political debate about how public money is spent . "Everyone
knows how to do business here - he said - the excessive costs are seen as a way
to redistribute the wealth of the State". (
N.A. )
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