Crony Capitalism at Sochi's Winter Olympics

Posted by Douglas V. Gibbs

The kicker:

The high cost is partially because Sochi is actually a warm climate city hosting a cold weather event, so the organizers had to move plenty of earth and will need to provide lots of artificially chilled air.

But plenty of the cost was caused by cronyism. Observers from the International Olympic Committee and the Russian political opposition suspect that a third or more of the money Russia spent was simply stolen. Government contractors who support President Vladimir Putin have become rich. Opponents have gone out of business, and even out of the country. One former contractor, now in Great Britain with a contract on his head, says Russian authorities told him to add $30 million to his bill, then to return the money as kickbacks.

In the U.S. there’s less cronyism, but we’re not immune.

Read the whole article at the Heritage Foundation

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