A $51 billion 'ghetto': Extraordinary images show Vladimir Putin's Sochi Olympic park lying desolate and abandoned one year after most expensive games in history
- The Winter Olympics of 2014 are a distant memory in the Russian Black Sea resort, with empty arenas left idle
- Fisht Stadium, the Bolshoy Ice Dome, the Tulip Inn hotel and the Adler Arena all sit in ghostly silence
- Skiers may still pack the slopes nearby owing to the collapsing rouble, but few are visiting the Olympic park
- The Formula One track, which hosted the £99 million Russian Grand Prix last year, stands dusty and unused
- The company which owns some of the complex is about to go bankrupt, according to the Kommersant newspaper
- At least two oligarchs involved in building the lavish facilities are dumping their toxic assets on the state
- Russian taxpayers are picking up the bill for this 'perfect museum of corruption', according to a local journalist
These
shocking pictures show the once gleaming winter sports palaces of the
Sochi Olympic park lying eerily silent and deserted.
A
year after the $51 billion Winter Olympics, many of the key facilities
built for Vladimir Putin's extravaganza have been barely been used.
While
the pistes up the mountains are now often packed with skiers - the
collapsing rouble means Russians have switched from the likes of
Courchevel to the Caucasus - many of the key sites of the games appear
to have little prospect of being filled again.
The roof of
Fisht Stadium has been partially disassembled. Incredibly it was only
used twice - for the opening and closing ceremonies
A view of the eerily silent lobby
of the Tulip Inn hotel, which was packed with guests during the games
but barely has a single customer now
The Tulip Inn Hotel (left), Adler
Arena (centre) and Fisht Stadium (right), amid one of the many empty car
parks of the Sochi Olympic complex
The roads are quiet around the $51
billion complex on the edge of the Black Sea. The company which owns
part of it is about to go bankrupt
The ski slopes around Sochi may be
packed with skiers owing to the collapsing rouble but few of them are
staying at the Tulip Inn Hotel
The Olympic flame has long since
gone out one year after the Winter Olympics was held. The park has been
branded a 'museum of corruption'
Local journalist Alexander Valov - of Blogsochi.ru -
has strongly criticised the huge spending on the Olympic project,
including on-going costs as Russia is plunged into a deep economic
crisis caused by Western sanctions over Ukraine and the slump in oil
prices.
'One year ago was the opening ceremony of the 22nd Winter Olympic Games,' he said.
'But since then the Olympic park did not become a Mecca for tourists.
'A few tourists do come but mainly to watch where the millions of dollars have gone.
'I
think it is the same kind of interest people have as in the Museum of
Corruption in the former residence of the [toppled] president of Ukraine
Viktor Yanukovich.'
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In
his comments on the pictures, taken on a recent Saturday afternoon,
Valov said: 'Have a look yourself - Tulip Inn hotel is completely empty.
'I
enjoyed the view at Fisht Stadium from the 8th floor. Fisht's roof has
been partly disassembled, so another 3.5 billion roubles (£34.3 million)
was spent.
'One more year of such an attitude and all this will turn into a banal dump.'
He
complained that the Bolshoy Ice Dome - costing the Russian taxpayer
£197 million - requires a budget of £9,900 a day to maintain, 'mainly
for taking care of the ice'.
A
company which owns some of the key facilities - hardly used since the
games - and is close to the regional authorities, is on the very edge of
bankruptcy, he reported, citing Russia's leading business newspaper
Kommersant.
Grey skies glower over the park,
surrounded by ragged patches of wasteground. It is far from a tourist
Mecca, with only handfuls of visitors
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