Russian People Gouged For Huge Putin Vanity Project

So the Winter Olympics in the summer resort town of Sochi, Russia (which is akin to staging them in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, or somewhere like that) is costing the Russian People $51 billion (or rather, its equivalent in rubles). To put that in perspective, that's more than the cost of all previous Winter Olympics combined.

Naturally, there is mega-corruption, and Putin's crony capitalists are making a killing. For good measure, locals have been evicted and their homes demolished to make way for this ephemeral extravaganza. Local water supplies have been dried up, toxic waste dumps created, cropland ruined. And many of the imported workers who built the facilities were stiffed for their wages and run out of town by Putin's goon squads. (And if you're homosexual, you better keep it a deep, dark secret, if you know what's good for you.)

But it's for a good cause- Vladimir Putin's vanity.

The Olympics is a giant scam, run by corrupt bribe-takers. The eminence grise of the enterprise is still the avowed (and proud of it) fascist, Juan Antonio Samaranch, Sports Minister to the late Spanish fascist dictator and mass murderer Francisco Franco. (Samaranch's son is currently on the board of the International Olympic Committee, along with a bunch of his dad's hand-picked stooges.0

Virtually every city that hosts Olympic games loses big money on it. It is sought after by local politicians for their own vainglory. And the athletes are shamelessly exploited by this multi-billion dollar racket. On the corporations and television broadcasters and the IOC itself benefit.

The Russian people, suffering from poor nutrition, rotten health, terrible (or not) jobs, and a decayed and decrepit social structure, sure could have used that $51 billion to benefit them, instead of the ego of KGB Colonel/Dictator Putin.