Russian Officials Fire Back at Olympic Critics

Dmitry Kozak, the deputy prime minister responsible for the Olympic preparations, reflected the view held among many Russian officials that some Western visitors are deliberately trying to sabotage Sochi's big debut out of bias against Russia. "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day," he said. SOURCE

Yesterday multiple outlets reported on Journalists arriving at their unfinished hotels before the start of the 2014 winter games.

Journalists at Sochi are live-tweeting their hilarious and gross hotel experiences
The 17 Most Ridiculous Photos From The Nightmare Sochi Olympic Hotels





According to Dmitry Kozak of the 100,000 guests that have checked into their rooms they've only received 103 complaints.

In a news conference, Mr. Kozak said he had no "claims against Western or Russian journalists who are doing their jobs." Most of the critical views of the accommodations or preparations amount to "small imperfections in the Olympic facilities and tourist infrastructure," Mr. Kozak said, noting that it wasn't long ago that the entire Olympic area was an "open field."

It should be interesting to see if they can complete everything in time for the start of the games. However - What's up with the "surveillance" video they have from people's hotels rooms?

Who cares about bad hotel rooms, this is a time to watch the worlds top athletes. If that means that you have to sacrafice some luxury for a good sports venue, then really your just griping bc its not what you want. I look forward to watching the GAMES, not the beuacracy that has plagued these olympics. let the games determine how good the olympics were.

reply to post by ATSmediaPRO


The guy admits publicly that they've got cameras in the hotel rooms which can see the bathrooms and showers? Who are these people? Snowden should be taking notes.

ATSmediaPRO
What's up with the "surveillance" video they have from people's hotels rooms?

Good catch. Either their story is complete BS - there are no cameras and no footage of 'good rooms' .... or their story about having cameras in the rooms is true and therefore no one has privacy in the Russian hotels. Either way ... Russia comes out smelling like 7 day old dead fish.

At this point, I'm believing the NBC and CNN media. They have no reason to try to make Russia look bad. If anything, they have reason to keep their mouths shut about the bad situation, in order to be able to keep being able to enter the country. By saying something, Russia is likely to pull their 'press passes' in the future.

I saw this story the other day
What dumpy rooms. Yucky water. Did they have good ratings in advance though? That's skid row conditions. surely there's classier places to stay than these.

Not very good for tourism if this is supposed to be a resort city.

One journalist said the hotels front desk was through a bedroom.


Cameras in rooms? No way. Really?
I'd rip them out.

reply to post by ATSmediaPRO


I'm sure others have already caught this but.....why are there cameras in the shower areas?

Creepy!

reply to post by ATSmediaPRO


Just a thought

Why don't we wait until after the games, before we blast Russia with all the negative thoughts. I'm pretty sure this is a monumental amount of work to complete.

Just saying

"don't put toilet paper on the toilet"?
Disgusting!!

Manholes with no covers on them?

Is this place a third world country?
Not a country I would care to visit.

According to Dmitry Kozak of the 100,000 guests that have checked into their rooms they've only received 103 complaints.

That's 103 complaints to many.

reply to post by Dizak


It's supposed to be completed in time.
All the other cities that hosted it were ready in time. They spent 51 billion. The stadium is nice, but the housing conditions are for rats not humans.
We cleaned up our city in Vancouver 2010. Built roads, etc.

Wonder what the opening ceremonies will be like and why is that, after the games have started? I'm watching skating. Snowboarding was on earlier.

Western visitors are deliberately trying to sabotage Sochi's big debut out of bias against Russia

Quote for the truth.



American "We must destroy anything that might promote Russian to be a normal country" Propaganda Machine is spinning!!

Right wing seems to be the #1 contributors!


Pretty sad really.

Not sure to call them Scared cowards or mind controlled Sheeps from 1939.

This riles and saddens me deeply....

You would have thought that western journalists would have far more serious journalistic work to to than having a "lets see how crap our hotel is" competition on Twitter!

In the history of the Olympic games the focus was on the atheletes... not on where the journalists were staying... who gives a cats bout of flatulance about the journalists?

Russia is coming out of a period where things were pretty bleak for a very long time and are still trying to organise themselves into becoming more "western friendly" so to speak.

Although some may or not critic Putin for the way he is handling his country, at least they are making an effort, regardless of if the hotels rooms are not finished or not.

I am going to opt to not believing all the unsavoury poo that certain journalists are spewing out at the moment and just enjoy the games, hoping that they will be held in a peacful and united atmosphere.

Kindest respects

Rodinus

It is not only western journalist doing the tweets, besides, Russia does have issues, just like we do.

And it is going to get worse for everyone.

Rodinus
This riles and saddens me deeply....


Russia is coming out of a period where things were pretty bleak for a very long time and are still trying to organise themselves into becoming more "western friendly" so to speak.

They have a long way to go before they get anywhere near being "Western Friendly"

www.bbc.co.uk...

Aleister
reply to post by ATSmediaPRO

 

The guy admits publicly that they've got cameras in the hotel rooms which can see the bathrooms and showers? Who are these people? Snowden should be taking notes.

Exactly, I reread that part like 3 times to make sure I was comprehending it correctly.


"We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day,"

However, before we are to critical to our Comrades on the other side. I personally wouldn't be surprised if we don't have the same type of monitoring on our side of the world.

They have a long way to go before they get anywhere near being "Western Friendly"

www.bbc.co.uk...

edit on 6-2-2014 by alldaylong because: (no reason given)

This issue (in your link) I totally and 150% agree with, however I want to respect the OPs original post and not get into that particular debate.

Like I said... at least they are trying!... Even IF they DO have a long way to go.

Kindest respects

Rodinus

While I can understand being upset about having a sub par hotel room, isn't the safety of all of the competitors and visitors the main thing Russia should be focusing on? And aren't they doing that?

Just wondering

The Olympics are always the chance to show the very best your country can do. If something minor like bus schedules is messed up it makes news because this is literaly your nation going all in. The Russians spent a record amount of money on this and no doubt planned everything to be perfect. The problem being of course the massive coruption in Russia. They are lucky if half that 51 billion made it to whatever project it was suppose to go to. Now you might wonder why nobody inspected these places and noticed things like missing manhole covers. No doubt they did and were payed to look the other way. When your trying to show case the very best your nation has to offer and also create buzz for international tourism this is a huge embarresment for the Russians and no doubt a very great many people are going to blame everybody they can because the the last thing they want to say is they were payed to look the other way. Of course corruption is not only a Russian problem but, up until now every nation has been able to crack down on it to make sure the city they were showing off came out looking good. When you can not even get the plumbing right you have start wondering just how far out of control things have gotten.

reply to post by Rodinus


That's fine but what do you think of Dimitry's response? I'm reminded of Baghdad Bob

So as soon as you arrive your electronics are hacked then your activities in your room are captured on video. Future youtubes? haha. What a place.