Russia has turned the Olympic venue at Sochi into a heavily secured site, bristling with police and security forces to discourage or prevent a terrorist attack during the games.
But, as athletes and visitors arrive, a more glaring problem is the state of accommodations and infrastructure to support tens of thousands of people. Unfinished hotels, yellow-colored drinking water and unfinished roads and sidewalks are being noted by journalists, and may end up giving Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin more of a black eye than the garrison environment he's created there.
BONUS: With a hat tip to Balloon Juice, here's a vignette by Katie Baker inside one of the hotels (read the full article here):
"As basements of hastily fabricated media housing complexes in corruption-plagued countries go, I imagine, it was not out of the ordinary: low, dripping ceilings; cords and cables slung inches away from dank puddles; workers’ belongings and equipment; a random Castaway-style handprint on a wall. Standard stuff. Then I came upon a small, poignant sculpture crafted out of tinfoil and propped up on a pipe. It was a hand, giving the middle finger. Whether the sentiment was directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin, or at some asshole foreman, or at me, I can’t say."(cartoon: Jack Ohman, via Gocomics.com)
