A photo of vacant and underutilized infrastructure in Sochi, taken by Russian photographer Alexander Belenkiy six months after the 2014 Winter Olympics. Photo: Alexander Belenkiy/Livejournal Much of the infrastructure built for the 2014 Winter Olympics is sitting in Sochi unused and unloved only six months after tourists and media left town.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s favourite resort city is “lifeless and isn’t working at even five percent of capacity,” according to photographer Aleksandr Belensky who visited the Olympic host city this month.
In dozens of photos posted on his blog, Belensky documents streets nearly devoid of life, buildings and restaurants sitting empty, and broken toilets piled up in a vacant parking lot.
Although the city is bound to show more life during the winter skiing season, that Russia spent some $50 billion on Olympic infrastructure now doomed to sit fallow lends greater weight to critics of the Games who said Sochi was too isolated to maintain the massive investment.
At least the 40,000-seat Fisht Stadium will get some use during the 2018 FIFA World Cup.
(Alexander Belenkiy/Livejournal)
(Alexander Belenkiy/Livejournal)
(Alexander Belenkiy/Livejournal)
(Alexander Belenkiy/Livejournal)
See more photos at Alexander Belenkiy’s blog.
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