Paul
Goble
Staunton, August 21 – Photographer
Aleksandr Belensky has documented what many observers feared: despite spending
more than 50 billion US dollars on the Sochi Olympics, Vladimir Putin has left
Sochi not the vital place he promised but a ghost town where there are almost
no tourists and where much of the infrastructure is already decaying.
On his Livejournal page, Belensky has
posted more than 30 pictures to back up his description of Sochi six months
after the games concluded, a place which he suggests was “simply condemned to
become a Ghost” now that Putin, Russia and the world have moved on to other
things (macos.livejournal.com/939210.html).
Belensky’s pictures tell his story,
but he provides brief commentaries for each of them, and they too are instructive. He notes that it isn’t the case that there is
no one about. One can sometimes see three or even as many as five people if one
looks closely. “But the place is lifeless and isn’t working at even five percent
of capacity.”
In the places built for the
Olympics, he notes, “there is simply nothing to do.” And there are no people
doing anything. In one five-story parking garage, “there wasn’t even a single
car … the only thing being parked there are broken toilets.” And the people who
are in evidence are clearly locals: they are doing crossword puzzles rather
than looking at guide books.
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