Village near Sochi despoiled by Winter Olympics (what a surprise)
By Sergei L. Loiko
February 9, 2014, 8:29 p.m.
SOCHI, Russia — The road to the Olympic Games has been rocky for the 360 or so residents of tiny Akhshtyr, an ancient village not far from Sochi. It also has been long, rutted and piled with construction debris.
Once a paradise surrounded by woods, ravines and trout streams, Akhshtyr has acquired a gigantic limestone pit and daily truck trips that have covered the village with layers of limestone dust — all part of the massive construction project that has transformed much of the Sochi area, for better and for worse. But what has people most upset are the police and security agents who have prevented them from making their usual 10-minute trip to a bus stop.
A few weeks ago, authorities erected a checkpoint prohibiting residents, either on foot or in vehicles, from getting to the road that lies a few hundred yards away. It is the main road linking the Olympic mountain cluster at Krasnaya Polyana with the Olympic village in Sochi.
That left one way out: a seven-mile winding road heaped in spots with construction waste and piles of gravel.
http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-sochi-woes-20140210,0,4556218.story#ixzz2swiF4OtW