Emergency: Olympics 2014

On January 14, three weeks before the start of the Olympics in Sochi and two weeks after the explosions in Volgograd, a state of emergency was actually introduced in the Krasnodar Territory. Everyone is checked. Caucasians - especially

I have been going to Krasnodar for the fifth year already, very often, once a month: by car, by train, by bus, even by plane. Now I was going there by train - so already in the car, among the passengers, there were policemen in civilian clothes. There was a guy on the train with me who was going to drive his boss's car from Sochi to Moscow. And the boss has his own hotel in Sochi. So he, the owner, was forbidden to stay in his own hotel for the duration of the Olympics: for the duration of the Olympics, they explained to him, only English-speaking staff should be in hotels, and he does not know languages.

Previously, in Krasnodar, at the station, it was possible to enter the city from the platform through the hall, or it was possible from the side, across the street. Now the passage is only through the hall, only through the turnstile and after checking the documents. Selectively check the bags, open them and look.

Back, from Krasnodar to Moscow, I went by bus. At the entrance to the bus station - turnstiles, a lot of policemen in uniform and in civilian clothes. Bags are checked selectively, but for Caucasians and Asians, it is mandatory. The station is guarded by Cossacks in addition to the police. They are in a new uniform, in gray sheepskin coats: if you need to help the police, they help.

At the box office there is an announcement that all buses in the direction of Sochi go only to Tuapse. And taxi drivers offer to take you to Sochi. I ask one such: "How will you go?" “If it’s really necessary, we’ll take it,” he replies.

From Krasnodar to Moscow - 1400 kilometers. Previously, there were almost no checks on the road, now all 25 traffic police posts have been restored, and our bus was stopped six times, riot police with machine guns came in.

They also stopped me at the entrance to Moscow, on the Moscow Ring Road, at the traffic police post: a guy in civilian clothes came in and asked me to prepare my passports. I looked through, photographed all the registration data on my iPhone.