Dark side of Russian bid to host winter games

Around 1,500 homes demolished to make way for new construction, with some families forcibly evicted.

Soon after Russia won the bid to host the 22nd Winter Olympics, bulldozers and cranes moved into the town of Sochi and have rarely stopped since then.

An entire winter village is being built along with countless new hotels, roads, a railway and ski resorts. When the games are on, around 75,000 people are expected to pour into the city park everyday.

What visitors are unlikely to see, however, is the personal cost of the project on local families. Around 1,500 homes had to be demolished to make way for the games sites; those who resisted were forcibly evicted.

Al Jazeera’s Emma Hayward reports from Sochi.

Source: Al Jazeera