Russia, Sochi, and the Olympics

Both Putin and Medvedev have been in Sochi this week, indulging in the semi-holidays that Russia's managers seem to prefer in August. They spend their time in government villas in the south of Russia (They used to go to the Crimea, when it was part of the Soviet Union), but they carry on working, either by flying in ministers or whoever from outside, including foreign visitors, or they conduct visits to nearby regional centres. This may well be why Sochi, rather than, say Khanti-Mansiisk, was supported for the Winter Olympics bid. Although Khanti-Mansiisk regularly holds World Cup biathlon events, no one from Moscow wants to spend a lot of time there.
Medvedev and Putin both inspected Olympic sites. Naturally everything is ship-shape and on track, despite the fact that there have been three heads of Olimpstroi over the last couple of years. In addition, according to yesterday's Moscow Times, there is still no final plan for a key road from the airport to the sports area, which takes up half of the total budget. The Olympics will probably go off OK, just as the G7 meeting did, but no doubt there will be a last minute panic, as there always is with most large scale projects like this in Russia (and not just in Russia). We just have to hope that corrupt inefficient building doesn't lead to one of the buildings or roads collapsing. Let's just hope that the terrorists who are attacking Moscow's friends in the North Caucasus (which are just down the road), don't get wind of it.