Recently elected (four month ago) Sochi mayor has quit last night. The official reason — health problems. He’s getting back surgery which will have him out for over three months. But I found interesting what Fetisov (legendary hockey player; today he’s one of the top sports officials in Russia) said: Mayor, of course, is an important figure, but today this process is controlled Prime Minister (Vladimir Putin), and the President (Dmitriy Medvedev), and I think that mayors retirement can not affect any details in Sochi Olympics preparation plans… Is maoyr of Sochi has become an insignificant position due to the such attention for above? Is it a lot harder to get a “piece of pie” of Olympic money? .. I think these are the things people will talk about. Meanwhile another person was set to be acting mayor. He’s not Sochi native, which again wll piss off many residents.

Hey guys! I’m sorry i haven’t written anything in a while, but there is a little change in my life — after thirteen years living in the USA I’m back in Russia giving it a try :-) Unfortunately I’m not in Sochi, as it’s tough to find an IT job there. I’m in Saint-Petersburg. And I’m a lot closer to Sochi now, plan to visit it more often, and for sure will keep this blog going!

I did go to Sochi a month ago, and you can find some photos from my trip on my Flickr account. Unfortunately, I forgot my notes on what I wanted to blog about in NY. I’ll try to remember, though, at least about the Investment Forum and how it’s organization affected people there.

Couple of hours ago, though, there was a little scare here in Russia when news agencies reported SkyExpress flight from Sochi to Moscow was being seized by unknown person, and that he demands for the plane to turn to Vienna, Austria. However, the flight safely landed in Vnukovo airport in Moscow, and the person who tried to “seize” the plane was arrested. Turns out the person who started the whole thing is a 30+ yrs old man who was released from psychiatric hospital, where he spent last six years, several hours prior to boarding the plane. On the plane he passed a written note with his demands and a bomb threat to the pilot via flight attendant. It’s all over now, though.

Oh, btw, good news for those of you who are in Moscow right now, or plans to be there real soon — SkyExpress has a good deal on Moscow-Sochi flights right now. Check it out on their website »

Anyways, now back to the happy stuff :-) Below are some of the photos from my trip. You can see the rest of them here: photos of Sochi – 12 pages + 8 pages from my friend’s wedding in Sochi which includes many photos outside.

My sis on Krasnaya Polyana

Sochi - where Past meets present: Vladimir Iljich looking over new buildings

Area near airport in Adler's center

Sochi sea port

My friend's wedding