It is, ironically, the perfect venue for an event riddled with corruption. It is the warmest place in Russia, where people go to escape winter.
The competitions which require snow will be held in the mountains above Sochi, where the day temperature is just above freezing. Fearing a lack of snow, Russia stored last year's though recent snowfalls made this insurance measure superfluous. Sochi is also on the edge of a war zone in the North Caucasus.
Counter-terrorist operations are being carried out less than miles away. Why did the Russians make such a curious choice? Russian officials point out that Sochi is not the first subtropical location for the winter Olympics. Nagano in Japan, which also has a subtropical climate, hosted the games in And as for the threat of a terrorist attack, nowhere is safe these days: security measures for the London Olympics were just as stringent.
That is all true. Sochi was chosen mainly because it is a favourite playground of Vladimir Putin, Russia's president. He spends much time at his Sochi residence and intends the games to be seen as proof of his mastery over nature and a symbol of his international legitimacy.
Yet the choice is, ironically, entirely apt in one respect. Since Soviet times Sochi has had a reputation as a brash and seedy resort, a hotspot for holiday sex and a place where black-marketers and underground entrepreneurs from across the Soviet Union spent their not-always-honestly-earned roubles. This makes it arguably the perfect place to hold the Olympics, which have become a model of Russia's crony capitalism and a world championship of corruption. Those who won the construction contracts certainly know a trick or two.
