Edit: I apologise, Valeria was Viktor’s daughter, not his granddaughter.

Five years old daughter of Viktor Kolodyazhny died today in a hospital after road accident on Friday. On Friday night, Kolodyazhny with his family was taking a ride in tourist carriage in St. Petersburg, when their carriage was hit from behind by a car. Valeria Kolodyazhnaya fell out of carriage and under car’s wheels. The driver is arrested; he did not try to evade the place of the accident.

Sad :-(

Video: Viktor Kolodyazhny and his daughter Valeria support Sochi Olympic bid.

Russian Thai Boxing Federation has applied to host 2008 European Thai Boxing Championship in Sochi, Russia. Sochi has strong Martial Arts traditions, for example we have one of Russia’s best Muai Thai clubs – «Atlan». Several of Atlan students have become Russian and European champions in Thai- and kickboxing. Also, Sochi often (every year?) hosts finals of the Russian «Pankration» (aka “Russian Absolute” – Russian version of UFC) Championship.

According to preliminary calculations, the sledge and bobsled course to be constructed for Olympic Gmes in Sochi will be longest and fastest in the World. This will be thwe second bobsled course in Russia, the construction of the first one will be completed some time next year near Moscow. Head coach of the Russian bobsled team said that Moscow course will most likely be used mostly for training and testing on new bobsleds, while Sochi’s course will most likely become course for competitions.

• “Base Element”, the new owner of Sochi airport, is arguing with “Russian Railways” on weather to build a light railway from the Airport to the city’s center and future Olympic venues, or to build full railway extention from the Adler rail station to the Airport. Time frames and money are the questions at hand.
• “Systema Gals” development company plans to build 100 000 sq. meters resort complex by year 2010, with will include five-star hotel and apartments, and 100 meters tall tower. I hope people don’t go building little Manhattan in Sochi, as Sochi is in seismic zone.
• “Moscow Capital” bank will invest $150 mln in building “Solnechnaya Polyana” (Sunny Valley) alpine skiing resort in Krasnaya Polyana – where Olympic skiing and sliding venues will be located. The construction will start in 2008, and is to be completed by year 2013.
• Land prices in Sochi exceeded Moscow prices. One “sotka” (100 sq meters) by the sea now costs $150 000.

Notes:
Land sizes: 1 sotka = 100 sq meters
Apartments: typical “one room” apartment has a single room, separate kitchen, lavatory+bathroom, sometimes balcony.

Nobody had any doubts that real estate prices would jump high if Sochi was to be selected to host the Olympics. You have expected it in your comments, so here are some numbers.

Land prices in Krasnaya Polyana, where skiing and sliding events will take place, rose from $45-$70 000 to $70-$100 000 overnight. Same thing happened in Imeritinskaya Valley by the sea – home to all other Olympic events. One room apartment in “Blinovo” micro-district (neighborhood), which is located less then five minutes away from Imeritinskaya valley, now costs $180 000, a $50 000 jump in two days. And let me tell ya, these and not brand new modern buildings we’re talking about, all these were built back in the good old Soviet times. And even though the future of the area looks bright, right now this is city’s outskirts, and it is rather underdeveloped.

Also, many people who were trying to sell their real estate are pulling it from the market to see how the prices will change. Some real estate agencies predict that there will be tougher laws for the construction companies now, which will rase prices for newly build apartments 100% or more.

News stories that caught my eye; some are new, some are updated:

• Over $622 million are allocated for Sochi program for the rest of this year from federal budget. Next year this sum will be $1.2 bln, and in 2009-2014 around $1 bln every year. Additional funds will be allocated in Krasnodar Regon’s and Sochi’s budgets, and more money will come from private investments.
• Business delegation from Belgium and Luxemburg will visit Sochi in May 2008 to learn about the opportunities in preparation for the Olympics. They are interested in construction, construction materials and hi-tech infrastructure projects.
• Second hydroelectric power station in Krasnaya Polyana will be completed by 2010 and will comply with all environmental requirements, including requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. Moreover, three billion dollars – a quarter of the promised 12 billion dollars investments, will be spent on upgrading Sochi’s energy sector. And this is a good thing, if you’ll remember this year’s (and every year’s) power outages in Sochi. All planned energy related projects are promised to be completed by year 2012.
• Around $117 million will be spent on four telecommunications projects in Sochi.
• Over 50 000 police officers will be ensuring safety in Sochi during the Olympics — that’s three and a half times fewer than during Summer Olympics in Moscow in 1980. Large role will be given to the hi-tech tools, such as state of the art video surveillance systems and new systems setup around the city with direct lines to the police.
• Three backup airports will be built for the Olympics in Russia’s South: in Gelendzhyk (another Back Sea resort north of Sochi), Mineralnye Vody (“Mineral Waters”, a … mineral waters resort :)), and Krasnodar (region’s capital). Sochi’s airport will be upgraded to accept any size aircraft in almost any weather conditions.

Backup airports for 2014 Winter Olympics

Wow! As you can imagine the news media of all sorts as well as regular people in blogs and forums are talking about our Olympic bid’s success. The win’s Pros and Cons arguments seem even more heated than before the vote: new infrastructure vs environmental worries, higher salaries vs high inflation, pride and recognition vs prospects of weaker foreign policy, ability vs inability to complete construction on time, international spotlight vs corruption – you name it, its been talked about. Whose shares went up? What will happen to people who live in and around the areas of constructions? What will happen to the “Olympic” money? Will the Olympics be profitable? Will it become’s Putin’s project for the upcoming years (after he leaves office next year after second term as President)? Both optimists and pessimists know all the answers, and they are completely opposite :) The truth, as always, lays somewhere in between. But everybody agrees – making this Olympics a success is a big exam for Russia.

I’ll try to avoid covering the arguments about all this questions as right now all of it is just speculations and personal views, and will stick to the facts.

So, how did Russia react to Sochi’s win? Mostly with shock and cheer! A lot of people, even the one’s who really wanted the win, did not believe in it. I’ve read that Russian betting offices lost over 10 million rubles (~$390 000). Betting is not that popular in Russia, but the point is they burned on this. A lot of people feel pride (so do I :)), and most are lost in guesses on how and how much this will change Russia’s South, and people’s lives.

July 5th (because of the time difference, it was 5th in Sochi when results were announced in Guatemala) will very likely become an official holiday in Sochi, this idea is already being proposed by Sochi’s mayor, Viktor Kolodyazhny. Russian businesses celebrated this victory with enthusiasm and introducing “olympic” sales. For example Russia’s biggest online store ozon.ru introduced 20% off almost all items for purchases on July 5th ans 6th, several travel agencies introduced lower rates to Sochi for those who’ll order next 10 days, “Ural airlines” introduced special “Olympic” rate for people going to Sochi for it’s development — from construction workers and engineers to sportsmen and their trainers, etc.

Anyways, I’ll keep an eye on the developments and keep you posted ;)

Sochi’s mayor, Viktor Kolodyazhny, has officially declared July 5th a day off!

As a reminder, the July 4th was also official day of work in Sochi. Enjoy while it lasts, Sochi, ‘cause considering amount of work that needs to be done to get ready for the Olympics, this maybe the last day off you’ll have in years! : )

July 4th: Sochi residents awating for the election time, several concerts and other events around the city juced up the anticipation.
Photo (C) yuga.ru

President of the IOC announces official Host City of the XXII Winter Olympic Games — it is Sochi!
Photo (C) AP

Ohhhh yeeeeaaaaahh!!!! :o)

Watched most or Sochi’s presentation, passed out right before Salzburg presentation and woke up to see second half of the PyeongChang presentation. I’ve never seen final Olympic bid presentations before, but it looks to me like they mostly focus not on Olympics, but on the effect of the Games and what it will leave behind. Sochi’s focus is region’s development for the future, as well as legacy (mostly material, venues and such) it leaves for the children for sports, and for Winter Sports to have another great place to held competitions.

The PyeongChang focused on unification of Koreas. I wonder what Salzburg’s team was focusing on? The Korean point of peace between 2 Koreas is awesome, I agree. But I don’t see any reason this will significantly improve relationship between two Koreas, and it‘s not just competitor’s talk. Yes, I know that South Korea is always trying to take steps toward improving relationship with North, if I remember correctly they even had US military base moved away from the border with North Korea. And they also agreed with North to march as single Korea during opening and closing ceremonies at the Olympics – but that’s it! South Korea recently hosted Soccer World Cup (together with Japan), which some argue even greater event then Olympics itself! (I’d disagree on this, though) How did that change the relationship with North? Unfortunately, it didn’t. And looking on their recent reaction on North Korean missile tests, I can’t say I believe the borders can open in seven years, even under pressure (and there’s really no pressure. The only pressure is on South Korean government which takes this promise upon itself).

As far as presentations, I liked Sochi’s presentation better than PyeongChang’s, more pictures and maps of what it will be like, and they even made a nice “one day at the Olympics” tour, showing how it may look for a family who came to Sochi for the Olympics, showing distances and travel times, and how it would look. Unfortunately I missed Putin’s speech, but I liked all Russian speeches that I saw – most of them are Olympic winners, and everyone had a personal story on how the Olympics had affected their lives, it was really great. The Koreans didn’t have anything like that (which, of course, doesn’t mean they don’t have Olympians whose lives were changed by their achievements in sports).

The bottom line is I don’t believe these presentations will change much, I think most IOC members already know who they’ll vote for. And of course you all know where my vote goes :)
Meanwhile, according to the news reports 30 000 “sochincev” (Sochi residents) are right now on the streets awaiting for the elections and the decision. Today was official day off work in Sochi…

Wednesday, 4 July 2007: A live webcast of the 2014 Candidate Cities’ presentations to the 119th IOC Session, as well as the announcement ceremony of the Host City for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games, will be available at the official IOC website!

The short opening ceremony following by Sochi’s presentation will start at 9am local Guatemala time, that is 10 am US ST time.

Links to the live feeds of the events »

Ten days left to the day when the 2014 Winter Olympics host city will official be selected. Sochi is one of three official candidate cities, and Sochi delegation will be the first one to have 45 minutes presentation. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to attend and take part in presentation.

Sochi-2014 delegation left on Friday for Guatemala, where the voting will take place on July 4th. The official host city will be announced at 17:00 local time – that is 6pm US EST time, 23:00/11pm in London and 3:00 July 25th in Moscow.

Root for Sochi! :)

According to the article published in «Rossiyskaya Gazeta» newspaper, the police in Russian resort cities will patrol streets and beaches on bicycles, patrol boat, and light flying vehicle (whatever that is) during summer season.

The police force will increase by 20% on the resorts to counter average 18% crime hike during summer tourism season. Increased security measures in trains, airports, seaports and surrounding buildings, mandatory emergency police button in all big hotels and spas, more road police posts are among other ways making people’s travel and stay safer. Every bus with children will be escorted by police car. Video surveillance and direct phones to police will be installed in places with large number of people.

Investment agreement about the construction of tourist recreation complex in the Black Sea was signed by the Krasnodar Kray administration with St.-Petersburg based “M-Industry” construction company during XI Saint-Petersburg International Economic Forum couple of weeks ago.

The artificial island, named Federation Island, will have residential area, hotels, restaurants, malls, year-round yacht parking, various sea attractions – aquarium, oceanarium, and many other. Planned location is Khosta district – my home area. No dates are set yet.

Sounds good? Not to me, and for so many reasons I don’t know where to start. And, unlike developments in Adler (in the planned “Olympics” area), which will improve district’s infrastructure and people’s lives, this one will improve nothing. I want more information on this, but right now I don’t see how it possibly can be a good idea.

«Kinotavr» is Russia’s biggest open film festival. It takes place in Sochi annually, this year its 18th time.

The opening ceremony took place evening June 3rd. There are fourteen moves in the competition program; they’ve been selected from over 100 films. Most of the participating movies are Russian (only one foreign move is Ukrainian), you can find the complete list of the titles at the official website’s program page.

Read the rest of this entry »