There has not been a lot of news coming out of the Sochi Olympics this week that paints Russia in a positive light. Most of the images and videos we have seen show an Olympic site that is dirty and unfinished. Dmitry Kozak, one of the officials who helped organize the Sochi Games, fired back at the critics on Thursday.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Kozak said Russian officials believe visitors from Western nations have been deliberately trying to sabotage their accommodations to make Russia look bad. How does he know this? The surveillance cameras in the bathrooms and showers, of course.
“We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall, and then leave the room for the whole day,” Kozak claimed. “We’ve put 100,000 guests in rooms and only gotten 103 registered complaints and every one of those is being taken care of.”
Probably not the strongest argument Kozak could have made. If Olympic officials are spying on guests while they take a shower, brown water pouring out of faucets would be the least of everyone’s worries.
Dmitry Peskov, the spokesman for Russian president Vladimir Putin, said the media has been sensationalizing minor issues that are present at every Olympics.
“In fairness, I would ask everyone to recall the reports from international and our domestic media about various Olympics,” Peskov said. “Everywhere someone doesn’t like the food, someone doesn’t like the hotel, someone thinks the mattress is too hard, etc. That is, such complaints accompany all Olympics. But the guest is always right and the organizer is obliged to listen to these complaints.”
When guests are being asked to throw toilet paper in a waste basket rather than flushing it down the toilet, they have a right to complain. If they’re being videotaped while showering, they may have the right to an attorney.
H/T Fourth-Place Medal
Photo via Twitter/Steve Rosenberg
