In preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympics, several scandals erupted at once. They are connected with the theft of funds allocated for the preparation for the Games, threats from sexual minorities, as well as criticism of the event by Russian citizens.
Theft of funds from the budget
One of the first scandals around the 2014 Olympics in Sochi was the institution of several criminal cases at once on the facts of unjustified overstatement of the cost of building sports facilities, as well as the theft of funds allocated for this.
One of the greatest achievements of the Ministry of Internal Affairs was the prevention of the theft of 8 billion rubles, which were allocated for the construction of Olympic facilities. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the heads of several commercial organizations tried to overestimate the estimated cost of work during the construction of some facilities and thereby steal government money.
Protest by representatives of sexual minorities
US gay activists announced a protest action during the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi. This was announced by Patrick Burke, founder of the You Can Play movement, which fights for the rights of people with non-traditional sexual orientation in sports. As he said, athletes representing sexual minorities will participate in the Olympics, and the adoption by the Russian government of a law against public actions of people with a gay orientation can undermine the confidence of other states in the country and even disrupt the holding of the Games.
The International Olympic Committee is considering the possibility of stripping the status of the Ambassador of the Games of the famous Russian athlete Elena Isinbaeva, two-time Olympic champion in pole vaulting, for her support of the law banning the promotion of non-traditional sexual relations. This gave rise to a wave of criticism of the athlete from foreign countries.
The satirical image scandal
A grandiose scandal erupted in Perm, where, as part of the White Nights in Perm festival, art expositions of artists on the theme of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, made in the form of political satire, were presented. Many of the artists' paintings really shocked the public and government officials.
One of them depicted the symbol of the Olympics - Mishka, but behind the mask of a pretty face was a character with fangs, reminiscent of Stalin. Another canvas depicts a nesting doll, half of which looks like a pomegranate. There were other images of sports symbols that demonstrated the negative attitude of some categories of citizens to the Olympic Games in Sochi.
