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March 26, 2012
Sochi 2014: Building Boom for Winter Olympics Leaves Some Behind
The World
by Julia Barrton
It sounds almost as if Bruce Ratner is in charge of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games — and Alexei Kravetz is the Russian Daniel Goldstein.
“A certain number of relocations have been necessary for the construction of Olympic venues, and Sochi 2014 and the government has assured us that people are being fairly compensated in line with Russian law,” the IOC said.
While the IOC said it has met with some of the displaced families in Sochi, it hasn’t spoken with one man there who’s been in a standoff with Russian authorities.
Alexei Kravets has been living in one room of his house on the Black Sea coast. He’s been without water, gas or electricity for five months, since the city demolished the rest of his neighborhood to make way for a new rail yard. His cinderblock house is surrounded by mud and rubble, and he’s painted slogans like “IOC help!” and “SOS!” in red on all the windows.
“In the evening, a backhoe comes up to the house and starts to scrape the concrete just to pressure me psychologically,” Kravets said. “If I left the place for, like, 15 minutes, they’d tear it down right away.”
Kravets said the backhoes have damaged the walls and he’s afraid the house could collapse on him. He’s refused the government’s offer of an apartment three miles from the coast. He’s a lawyer, and he’s appealed to Russian and European courts for help, but has gotten no ruling.
“We never asked anything from the state,” Kravets said. “We built the house all by ourselves, and now the state is taking it away from us.”
Photo: Julia Barton
Posted by eric at March 26, 2012 10:35 PM