Sochi. Before the ball

Vladimir Kimaev

Sochi resident, member of the Ecological Watch Council in the North Caucasus

This is what has become noticeable: the number of vehicles has sharply decreased, there are practically no trucks. There are actually not heavy cars, even on bypass roads in Sochi. The work of quarries is stopped; A large number of police officers, some of them are dressed in a special Olympic uniform, which was introduced at this time. In addition to them, the city is full of police officers and employees of special services dressed in civilian clothes. But by haircut, and by behavior, and in special equipment that are quite easily visible, it is easy to calculate people involved in security in the Olympic Park.

The weather, without a doubt, is done: yesterday and the day before yesterday, the plane was buzzing over the city, apparently, cement poured again to improve the weather. Nevertheless, the cyclone captures, spilled with rain. It was raining at night, and yesterday there were chic weather - dry, sunny.

Construction work is still being carried out and when it ends, it is not entirely clear: some of the objects to the Olympics were closed with special curtains, which depict the same buildings.

Citizens living next to the Olympic objects have all the same problems with the housing and communal services - both the light was cut down and cut down throughout the city. In the village of Mirny - the problem with the sewer: the station that rolled the waste has broken, it was impossible to be there.

The price of a car route from Sochi station to the Russianshill - this is an Olympic hospitality zone - almost doubled: it was fifty rubles, it became eighty -six. The number of minibuses in the city decreased, and prices rose. But there were a lot of cars with Olympic special transfers - for them the allocated stripes were arranged, traffic jams are formed already on these stripes.

The Olympians were built and shit all the time, and now we all have to answer in chorus for this business.

New Olympic buses run in Krasnaya Polyana, to the Rosa Khutor, in general, to the Olympic cluster. There are a lot of buses, and they were all purchased on a loan: the city assembly voted for the acquisition of five hundred transport units, all this lay a heavy burden on Sochi. Flights in these “fildeal” buses are very expensive: what costs 25 rubles costs 50, which causes irritation of local residents. Today I was driving to the station, I heard people at the stops, cursed obscenities. They expressed, so to speak, their indignation and the Olympics, and Putin, and Tkachev, to everyone in a row. In general, the growth of transport tariffs is the most painful topic for the city. At the cash desk, pensioners are 70-80 in line for traveling monthly tickets, I have not seen this for a long time.

The city is smeared, tinted, but bloggers still find flaws: heaps of garbage, for example. And if you move five steps from the city center, you can find the remains of Olympic construction: household and construction waste. When they remove this, no one knows - that is, the Olympians were built and scary all the time, and now we all have to answer for this business in chorus.

The city is a large number of military.

In the Imeret Valley, they made a pedestrian path along the beach, ennobled the appearance, but there is practically no beach. The mood of people, say, is neutral: neither special smiles, nor grief. But there are many volunteers in the city, they run through the streets, take pictures under the palm trees, click on the mobile phones.

I talked with several volunteers: they are unhappy with living conditions, there are few hotels, in the private sector near the Olympic park there are no prices below than 2500 rubles per night. And everything is already scored with journalists and guests - those who decided to come to warm up in advance: from the north, from the Far East.

Against this background, events are taking place directly with the Olympiad not related: part of the local reserve is transferred to the territory of the National Park, which actually means the complete elimination of the natural monument in Sochi.

What cost 25 rubles costs 50. I was driving to the station today, I heard people at stops, cursed obscenities.

Of course, we are concerned about the theme of Evgeny Vitishko (a member of the Ecological Watch Council in the North Caucasus. It became widely known in connection with the so -called case of damage to the fence in the country of the Governor of the Krasnodar Territory Alexander Tkachev in the Blue Bay, in which Vitishko was condemned for three years on June 2013. In December 2013, a conditional term was replaced by three years of imprisonment in the colony . Ed. So far, the court decision on the conclusion has not entered into force, Vitishko is under subscription about the loss of the place: nevertheless, all his meetings and contacts are carefully controlled, and a week ago we went with him by car in Tuapse, so the police stopped us - under the pretext that we allegedly carry prohibited substances in the trunk. Vitishko appealed, demanding to cancel the real term, so the judicial consideration was specially appointed on February 22, on the penultimate day of the Olympics, so that there was no public resonance.

And yesterday information was received about stripping unwanted elements like me - this was reported in a private conversation. I do not know whether these rumors are justified or not. I think this will be done under the sauce “reducing the number of extremist citizens”: on the one hand, these are justified actions, given the Olympics and a terrorist threat. On the other hand, this can accept completely undesirable, but typical forms for our country - searches with addiction among environmental activists, accusations of involvement in extremist groups. Such a madhouse, understand?

There are still no sharp measures against me - except for outright external observation, there is nothing more.

And the ecology in the city is terrible: cars drive at night, pour garbage. There are no special training grounds for him, he is felled somewhere, no one takes him anywhere.

I am not going to watch the Olympic Games and I didn’t even buy a fan’s passport. For me, all this is not very interesting, I have no mood: if I did not know how all this was built, if I did not know what damage to people and nature all this turned out, I would probably watch the game. And so - I can’t.

What will happen next to the city is difficult to predict, since we simply absent normal regional management: the authorities cannot raise the edge, they cannot restore its image as a granary of Russia. At the same time, more than one and a half trillion rubles were invested in Sochi, but there is no normal concept of the city’s development, it was not discussed with anyone, I don’t know it. I am an indifferent person, I am interested in business in the city, and if such a concept was, I would definitely know about it. This means that the fate of the city is decided by Culuaro, without the slightest participation of citizens.