“Some people have latched onto the rising costs, but that can happen because of unforeseen circumstances,” Pakhomov said in an interview in his office March 6. “There won’t be any witch hunts after the Olympics.”
Money wasn’t an issue later that night at the Blue Sea, a trendy Sochi eatery where vintage Louis Roederer Cristal Rose champagne goes for $1,600 a bottle and a basic crab dish can set you back $300. The seafront restaurant was packed with well- coiffed women laden with furs and gems, a reflection of the extravagance transforming this former Soviet city of 343,000. Outside, trucks full of materials continued to inch toward their Olympic destinations, spreading clouds of dust.
For Gurban Babayev, though, there’s nothing to celebrate. Babayev, who operates a small fleet of motorized cranes, says he’s been chasing Olympics subcontractors for $65,000 in unpaid bills for more than a year, including $6,500 from a unit of Rotenberg’s Mostotrest.
Even with a court ruling, seen by Bloomberg, ordering one of the subcontractors to pay up, Babayev said he still can’t find anyone in authority to help him collect.
“You can’t go against a presidential project,” Babayev said. “This is so bitter for my soul. I earned this money with my blood.”