Thread: Sochi 2014 - Olympic Winter Games (official site)

Originally Posted by edvalais

it is my belief

Understood. Would you also believe if I tell you that every Olympic bid winner paid bribes to the MOC? No? I thought so, because we only believe in what we want to believe.

Originally Posted by edvalais

I referred to the Magnitsky case to highlight the level of corruption in Russia. You yourself refer to the corruption surrounding this sad figure. In this regard, we appear to agree.

You know what? Corruption costs European economy 120 billion euros a year | Reuters
Corruption exists everywhere, and it's not like only Russia has this disease. Of course, I agree because I've never ever heard of a honest politician or a government official in any country.

Originally Posted by edvalais

What is Putin's official salary? I think it's about $190,000. How does he afford the watches he wears. In your opinion, is there any link between him and the palace in Gelendzhik? If there is, how on earth does he afford it?

The watch, yes. You know what? I think the president of Russia should wear expensive watch and go by the best limo one can find. We're not Zimbabwe or Ivory Coast, and if our president has a nice gold watch - I'm glad for him. No, really. Am I envious? No! No way I would trade places with him. So let this watch be, because I'm having much more fun in my life than he is.
As for the rest (I heard his personal wealth amounts up to $43 bn making him the richest man in the world) - let people believe in what they want to believe.

Originally Posted by edvalais

The "Foreign Agent" law was just a childish reaction to the Magntisky Bill.

A good and timely reaction nevertheless. I fully approve.

Originally Posted by edvalais

Idem - the law banning American couples from adopting Russian children. This was spiteful and actually unkind. Some of these couples wanted to adopt handicapped children, who will now have to endure the horrors of a Russian orphanage. Why didn't Putin spend the $50bn on building more children's homes?

Such rhetorics reminds me of Sharikov (a character from M. Bulgakov's 'The heart of a dog'). He also suggested that everything should be expropriated and divided equally. Russia is a rich country and we have money for both Olympics AND orphan houses (in fact, this laws that prohibited adoptions to foreigners has drawn the media attention to the orphanage problem in Russia and the statistics of domestic adoptions has improved greatly).

'endure the Horrors of a Russian orphanage' - that's nice. Heard it somewhere or invented yourself? BBC perhaps... or was it NY Times?

An orphan house from Russian hell:

Originally Posted by Ramil

'endure the Horrors of a Russian orphanage' - that's nice. Heard it somewhere or invented yourself? BBC perhaps... or was it NY Times?

An orphan house from Russian hell:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAMFH2vaaHY

Video of Russian orphans being beaten sparks outrage | World news | theguardian.com