Billions of dollars were stolen from the 2014 Sochi Olympic fund by Russian businessmen with close ties to Vladimir Putin. This, according to opposition leaders who released a report Thursday afternoon.
Facebook/Sochi Olympics
“In preparing for the Olympics $25 to $30 billion was stolen,” Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov told reporters.
The report, written by Nemtsov and Leonid Martynyuk, another Putin critic, alleges that the most expensive sports facilities built for the Games were commissioned without competition or public tenders.
“Only oligarchs and companies close to Putin got rich,” he wrote on his blog. “The absence of fair competition, cronyism… have led to a sharp increase in the costs and to the poor quality of the work to prepare for the Games.”
So is this legit or the political version of sour grapes? Tough to tell. There’s no solid evidence of impropriety. Furthermore, we should all just wait for the inevitable dashcam video to emerge.
Relax, guys. Someone probably captured the Olympic money-stealing on dashcam.
— Kyle Koster (@KyleKoster) May 30, 2013