• 3 months ago
Panorama.S2014E03.Putins.Games
Transcript
00:00President Putin wants the Winter Olympics to showcase modern Russia.
00:08We pledge to make the state of Olympians, journalists, guests in Sochi a safe, enjoyable and memorable experience.
00:18But what do the Sochi Games really tell us about Putin's Russia?
00:24I'm afraid the Olympics are happening and so we have a right to film and broadcast what's happening.
00:31We find an Olympics where workers have been cheated and terrorised.
00:36They must have heard my screams from the street.
00:40Where half of the Games $50 billion budget may have been stolen.
00:46It's a great example of Putin corruption.
00:50And where whistleblowers are threatened with execution.
01:01With days to go until the Olympics begin, I'm in Russia to investigate the truth about Putin's Games.
01:19Welcome to Sochi. Welcome to the Winter Olympics.
01:43It's a spectacular sporting event that will enthrall viewers around the world.
01:48The authorities here say millions of Russians are united by the Olympic dream.
01:55But in Vladimir Putin's Russia, nothing is quite what it seems.
02:11Forget the millions of Russians. These Games are really the pet project of just one man, the President.
02:17Vladimir Putin loves Sochi. It's where he holidays and entertains world leaders by the Black Sea.
02:24Winning the Games for Sochi wasn't just business, it was personal.
02:38Putin hopes that the Games will project Russia's image as a great power.
02:42The Olympic torch has gone to the Arctic.
02:48And up in a rocket.
02:56But not everyone is happy about the Olympics.
02:59Meet the Games' number one critic, Boris Nemtsov, Russia's former Deputy Prime Minister,
03:04and now a high-profile opposition politician.
03:07He ran for Mayor of Sochi, but lost.
03:11In Russia, politics can be rough, and over the years,
03:14Boris' campaigning has angered the police and other politicians.
03:19That's Boris on the right.
03:26Now he's questioning the soaring cost of the Games.
03:41$50 billion is 30 billion quid.
03:45That's 25 times the cost of the previous Winter Games in Vancouver,
03:50and far more than any Summer Olympics, too.
03:53Boris says that's partly because they're in the wrong place.
04:11They've built this new resort in the mountains,
04:14but most of the venues are on the coast, where it's warm enough for palm trees.
04:19Putting ice rinks in the subtropics has helped Sochi
04:22become the most expensive Olympics ever.
04:25It's as if no-one in the Kremlin dares say,
04:28Mr Putin, are you sure about this?
04:32It's also in the most volatile part of Russia,
04:35close to its troubled Muslim republics, such as Chechnya and Dagestan.
04:40Four weeks ago...
04:44..suicide bombers killed 34 people in the southern city of Volgograd.
04:49A jihadi terrorist leader has ordered a mass shooting.
04:53It's as if no-one in the Kremlin dares say,
04:56Mr Putin, are you sure about this?
05:01Putin has ordered his followers to attack the Games.
05:07They should put maximum effort into the ways of Allah
05:10to prevent these satanic dances on the bones of our land
05:14and the bones of our ancestors.
05:19Now a police poster in Sochi names seven women
05:22who may launch suicide attacks.
05:24UK officials say more attacks in Russia
05:27are very likely in the run-up to the Games.
05:32For many years, Putin has cultivated his image as a strong man.
05:38On his watch, the economy has grown
05:41and many Russians feel their country is stronger and more stable.
05:45Putin's response to the bombers was blunt.
05:49But are the police using security to stop journalists
05:53from reporting on Olympic problems?
06:19So, we're going to have a go and see if we can get there.
06:26We want to meet the villagers, but the FSB,
06:29what used to be known as the KGB, have other ideas.
06:39Good day. How are you?
06:41Where are you going? Up there.
06:43To Astyr.
06:45For what purpose?
06:48Talk to people. Film...
06:54I'm afraid the Olympics are happening,
06:56so we have a right to film and broadcast what's happening.
07:01The FSB aren't happy with our paperwork.
07:08Can we all get out of the car? He can't see through the...
07:11Right, OK, let's do that, yeah?
07:14President Putin has said journalists are welcome to the Sochi Olympics,
07:17so we want to go up there and talk to the local people
07:20on the other side of the village.
07:24This checkpoint is new. It's only been here a few weeks.
07:27The FSB take our passports and say we can't go any further into the village.
07:32But the locals managed to find us.
07:44Villagers are upset about a new quarry
07:47that provided stone for Olympic construction.
08:14The quarry is owned by Russian Railways,
08:17which is run by Vladimir Yakunin,
08:19said to be a close chum of Mr Putin.
08:35Russian Railways says it paid for pipe water
08:38to be brought to the village for the first time.
08:41It also built this water pump three years ago.
08:44There's only one problem.
08:47It doesn't work.
08:49The company says the Sochi authorities are responsible.
08:53Water is now being brought in by tanker.
08:58Overlooking the Olympic Park,
09:00other residents have been badly affected by the Games too.
09:03Please don't adjust your set.
09:05These houses really are at a crazy angle.
09:11But Tatiana Skiba and her family still live here.
09:27She's absolutely right.
09:29It feels like... It's making me seasick just to be in this.
09:35The damage was caused by a landslip
09:38and the family blame that on contractors
09:41illegally dumping Olympic waste on the hillside above their house.
09:45The Sochi authorities deny this.
09:47RUSSIAN SPEECH
10:05Since Putin came to power,
10:07the Russian economy has grown tenfold.
10:10In 2000, there were no billionaires in Russia.
10:13Now there are more than 100.
10:15But critics say the system is stacked against ordinary people.
10:22Putin's man in Sochi is Anatoly Pakomov.
10:26The mayor says many problems will be sorted out after the Games,
10:30but not all claims are genuine.
10:35Just like in any of your cities,
10:37you can find in our town a building which isn't so good.
10:40The owner of that building will tell you that its poor condition
10:43has been caused by preparations for the Olympic Games.
10:47He's met the residents of the village where we were stopped by the FSB
10:51and says the problems are being resolved.
10:56The Olympic billions have transformed Sochi.
11:01Tens of thousands of workers have built roads, a new railway, hotels
11:06and the gleaming new sports facilities.
11:09But many workers haven't been paid for months.
11:13Thousands of workers have been cheated in Sochi.
11:16That's more than half the workers who've worked on Olympic sites.
11:20It's hard for me to say how much they're owed.
11:23I think tens of millions of roubles.
11:26In Russia, it's a crime to cheat people out of their wages.
11:30This worker only got paid after he sewed his lips together in protest.
11:39And when Maduro Sdemachan complained,
11:42he says the police arrested him on a trumped-up charge.
11:49They started to beat me, one from one side and one from the other.
11:53I fell like that to the floor and I started losing consciousness
11:57and they hauled me back up and sat me on the chair.
12:01One of them said,
12:03''Have you had enough or do we have to beat you some more?''
12:12He says the police then sexually assaulted him,
12:15injuring him so badly he can no longer work or even lift up his son.
12:20He's now trying to bring charges against the police.
12:23They are suing him for libel.
12:27The mayor denies there has been any brutality
12:31and says workers who don't get paid can take their case directly to City Hall.
12:39When we've been approached, the prosecutor has taken action
12:42and the workers have been paid their salaries.
12:48Semyon filed a complaint to the prosecutor about workers being cheated.
12:53The very next day, the authorities raided his office.
12:58He was later called in for questioning by Putin's political police.
13:06The head of that department told me they're not pleased
13:10and if I continue doing this, I might face problems.
13:20In the run-up to the games, Putin tried to improve his country's image.
13:24He released 2,000 prisoners, including former oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky
13:29and the feminist punk band Pussy Riot.
13:33They were jailed after a protest in a cathedral.
13:37Now they're calling for an Olympic boycott.
13:55In Sochi, ordinary people are still facing jail for speaking out.
14:00Conservationist Yevgeny Vytishko was arrested after protesting about environmental damage.
14:08The impact of these Olympic Games will be felt by the country for years to come.
14:14Most of the buildings that have been constructed are on what used to be Sochi National Park.
14:25The organizers told us they've planted 1.5 million trees
14:29and after the Games, 20,000 hectares will be added to the National Park.
14:34But it's hard to see how all this building in the mountains is good for the environment.
14:39And Putin himself may be part of the problem.
14:45The word on the piece is that somewhere up in the mountains
14:49The word on the piece is that somewhere up in the mountains
14:53there's a secret base.
14:55Its name? Moonglade.
15:03Officially, it's a scientific research station.
15:07But campaigners say it's yet another luxury home for the president.
15:15Putin decided to build himself a country house there.
15:18This holiday home fever is something that really must be fought.
15:22That's what we're doing and why the court found us guilty.
15:27Yevgeny has now been sentenced to three years for spraying graffiti on a fence,
15:32a crime he says he didn't commit.
15:34And he's not the only person who says he's been arrested for doing his job.
15:42If there was something like Panorama in Russia,
15:45TV reporter Nikolai Yast would work for it.
15:48Instead, this is what happened to him.
16:06Nikolai says the drugs, synthetic cannabis, were planted by the police.
16:11This was a set-up to stop him investigating corruption
16:15and to intimidate other journalists.
16:20Lots of people are frightened to write about the other side of the Olympics.
16:25I was rung several times by people who wanted to tell me
16:29about what was happening on the Olympic construction sites.
16:34He was locked up, then held under house arrest for six months.
16:39But tests showed there were no drugs in his system
16:42and the prosecutor now says there's insufficient evidence against him.
16:48Do you think what happened to you is in part related to your work
16:51on Olympic corruption?
16:53Unfortunately, everything here is linked to the Olympics.
16:59In one sense, Nikolai was lucky.
17:0225 journalists have been killed in Russia
17:05since Putin came to power 14 years ago.
17:11For an Olympic village, you need electricity.
17:14But in Sochi, there's not enough power to go around.
17:17In 2012, we're told there were 1,000 power cuts
17:21and the problem hasn't gone away.
17:28The reason I'm holding a candle in our hotel
17:31is because there's been a power cut,
17:33with the exception of saying it's because of the Olympic Games.
17:39Officially, there's no problem with the power supply,
17:42but remember, nothing in Putin's Russia is quite what it seems.
17:47It's a big question for some Olympians and Paralympians
17:51as to how they will be treated in Russia.
17:55To find out more, we're going to a place with no name
18:00and no sign above the door.
18:02The reason, it's a gay bar.
18:13Cheers.
18:26In June, Russia passed a law
18:28banning the promotion of non-traditional sexuality to minors,
18:33widely seen as an attack on gay rights.
18:36Most people here don't want to be filmed.
18:38Those that do are cautious about what they say.
18:51Since the law was passed,
18:53gay rights protesters have had a hard time.
19:01Not least from the police.
19:03Gay Olympians and visitors are worried about how they'll be treated.
19:10The Sochi organising committee told us it's working hard
19:13to ensure the Games will be remembered for their diversity.
19:19So how does the mayor feel about gay people in Sochi?
19:23Do gay people have to hide their sexuality when they're in your town?
19:30No, we just say that it's your business, it's your life,
19:34but it's not accepted here in the Caucasus where we live.
19:38We don't have them in our town.
19:44You don't have them in this town?
19:46Are you sure?
19:48I'm not sure. I don't bloody know them.
19:51I went to a gay bar last night.
19:54Will gay people be welcomed to the Sochi Olympics?
19:59Our hospitality will be extended to everyone
20:02who respects the laws of the Russian Federation
20:05and who doesn't impose their habits and their will on others.
20:09But, yes, everyone is welcome.
20:15The mayor told me there were no gays in Sochi.
20:18No gays? No, no homosexuals.
20:25As far as I know, there are several gay clubs in Sochi.
20:30How they survive? Why they are not bankrupt?
20:39Another grave charge levelled against these Olympics
20:42is that they are the most corrupt in history.
20:46Nemtsov has compared Sochi contracts with previous games.
20:50For example, Sochi Olympics with Vancouver,
20:53with Salt Lake City, with London,
20:56and that's why I estimate how much money they steal.
21:00Nemtsov and other opposition figures
21:03estimate that $25 billion, that's half the budget,
21:08has been trousered by the wrong people.
21:11And they're not the only ones who say the games are corrupt.
21:15Yuri Morozov used to be a favourite Kremlin contractor.
21:19Now he's in hiding in Surrey.
21:22He says officials asked him for huge kickbacks
21:25on Olympic building projects.
21:27It is very difficult for foreigners to understand this system.
21:31Say, for example, you start business, you're opening the shop in London,
21:35and then somebody comes and says,
21:37now you are paying 30% of the revenue of your shop to me,
21:41because he comes from the authorities of London, mayor.
21:44You either close down your shop or your restaurant, or you pay 30%.
21:47You have no choice. Yes.
21:51Morozov says that on one Sochi contract,
21:54this official, Vladimir Leshevsky,
21:56asked him for millions of pounds of kickbacks.
21:59He started paying, but eventually went to the police,
22:02and they set up a sting.
22:06So you wore a wire. Yes.
22:10And, as you handed over, £100,000 in roubles. Yeah.
22:15Who did you hand that money over to? To Leshevsky.
22:20But the police destroyed the tapes,
22:22and the case was later dropped for lack of evidence.
22:26Vladimir Leshevsky strongly denies these allegations.
22:32Morozov also says that his wife was threatened
22:35by another corrupt official.
22:40That means you'll be drowned in blood.
22:45That means you'll be washed with blood.
22:50Later, he discovered there was a contract out on his life.
22:53He's been given asylum in Britain.
23:00So, corruption, cronyism, mismanagement?
23:03How strong is the evidence?
23:05To find out, I'm taking an Olympic tour.
23:08First stop, downtown Sochi.
23:11This is the headquarters of Olympstroi,
23:13the Olympic delivery agency,
23:15responsible for a multi-billion-pound budget.
23:18But it's been dogged by controversy.
23:21Thus far, it's lost three bosses,
23:24and there have been multiple allegations of corruption.
23:29Six fraud investigations were launched
23:31against senior Olympstroi officials,
23:33but then something odd happened to the cases.
23:37All of them disappeared.
23:39All of them disappeared.
23:41Putin wants to show the world
23:44that this is the most transparent, most honest,
23:47but nobody knows why, most expensive Olympic Games,
23:52well, without any criminal cases, with very clean rules,
23:56with very transparent rules, etc.
23:58Three heads of Olympstroi have been sacked for corruption, correct?
24:05No, this is not true.
24:07The three bosses resigned of their own free will.
24:10They simply miscalculated their strengths,
24:13including their physical health.
24:17Next stop, the mountains.
24:28Behind me, the Sochi ski jump,
24:30possibly the most mismanaged Olympic project ever,
24:35and there's some serious competition for that title.
24:41It was finished two years late because of problems with landslides.
24:45The cost increased sevenfold.
24:48The boss was sacked
24:50and later accused of corruption on another project.
24:54But the most expensive of all
24:58is not a ski jump or a bobsleigh track.
25:04It's this new Olympic road and railway
25:07linking Sochi with the mountains.
25:09It cost $8 billion.
25:13One sceptic said, at that price,
25:16it would have been cheaper to pave the road with Louis Vuitton handbags.
25:22It was built by Russian Railways,
25:25the company run by Putin's friend Vladimir Yakunin.
25:28It says the cost is comparable to similar transport projects elsewhere.
25:34But he's not the only friend of the president accused of cronyism.
25:38Businesses connected to Arkady and Boris Rotenberg
25:42were given contracts worth $7 billion.
25:45They've reportedly known Putin since childhood.
25:50The Rotenbergs and Yakunin declined to comment.
25:53The president says the cost of the games has increased
25:57because of the difficulties of building in the mountains.
26:12Others disagree.
26:14One International Olympic Committee member,
26:16Jean-Franco Casper,
26:18says a third of Sochi spending disappeared because of corruption
26:22and contracts went to a construction mafia of businessmen
26:26closely linked to Putin.
26:29Critics say the truth about Olympic costs and corruption
26:32will only come out when Putin leaves the Kremlin.
26:36I think that in the future we will, of course, investigate what's happened.
26:40Unfortunately, in Putin-Russia, there is no independent court at all
26:45and there is no real investigation and criminal investigation against criminals.
26:51But the Winter Olympics aren't the only big sporting event Russia is hosting.
26:552018 FIFA World Cup, ladies and gentlemen, will be organised in Russia.
27:03Not that we're bitter, mind.
27:05Russia has promised world-class football stadiums in 11 cities
27:09for the 2018 World Cup.
27:12I just can promise, we all can promise, you will never regret.
27:17Let us make history together.
27:21You think there's going to be the same kind of problems for the World Cup?
27:25How can these two events be any different?
27:28It's the same people, the same management set-up.
27:32Nothing will change and it will all be the same.
27:37Putin is gambling billions that hosting global sporting events
27:42will restore pride to Russia.
27:44But with the Games just days away,
27:46not a single Western leader has said they'll attend.
27:50And most of the people we've met in Sochi aren't buying it at all.
27:57There's little doubt that the Sochi Olympics will be full of sporting triumphs
28:01enjoyed by millions of people around the world.
28:04And the Kremlin will claim the credit.
28:06But the run-up to these Games reveals something else too.
28:11The dark half of Vladimir Putin's Russia.
28:15And when the Olympic circus leaves town,
28:18the ordinary people of Sochi will be left paying the price of Putin's Games.
28:26Next week, Panorama is inside North Korea
28:32with unique access to a Western-funded university
28:35designed to open the minds of the secretive state's future elite.
28:45And you can see that next Monday at 8.30.
28:47Next, the beginnings of a war which made the then Prime Minister cry in public.
28:51Jeremy Paxman reveals the real impact on the lives of British people
28:54with a new series.
28:55On BBC Two now, profiling the many faces of Dick Emery,
28:58while BBC Three goes live at the Apollo.