Vladimir Putin’s Sochi Winter Olympic Games of 2014 proved a nearly unparalleled ecological and human rights disaster. Environmentalists were harassed and jailed, environmental law was rewritten to accommodate illegal construction and waste dumping in protected lands, Sochi’s drinking water was poisoned, and $51 billion in shady financing later, the Sochi region and surrounding forests, wetlands and beaches are nearly destroyed. This section covers the build up to the Games, the abuses committed during the Games, and the ongoing environmental and human rights degradations left in their wake.
