World War II museum opened in Sochi this weekend. According to vesti.ru, the museum is featuring one of the most complete collections of WW2 awards. All Soviet medals and decorations were donated to the museum by owners or their heirs, and the awards from the foreign countries were purchased in auctions. Among other items are ammunition and paintings from the collection of the businessman Victor Baturin.

The museum is located on the territory of the Sanatorium «Krasmashevsky».

In front to the museum is new statue of Churchill, Stalin, and Roosevelt meeting in Yalta (another Black Sea coast city, now in Ukraine). The author of the statue is Israeli architect Frank Meisler. Here a couple of pictures from the rian.ru and a video news clip (in Russian) from ntv.ru

Read the rest of this entry »

As reported by Russian news agency ITAR-TASS about a week ago, Russia and Ukraine have reached the agreement to build a bridge connecting Russia’s South and Crimea. I’ve written an article about plans for the Kerch Strait Bridge when they were announced by Ukrainian officials last year.

That announcement came short after Russian gov’t officially pledged to develop Sochi as round-year resort no matter how the Olympic bid goes. Many believe having this bridge will help Ukraine get some of the money Russia will pump into the south over the next decade. Anyways, both Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers have confirmed the agreement, and Ukrainian PM, Yulia Timoshenko, announced that the work on this project will start within days.

The first Kerch Strait Bridge connecting Krasnodar Krai and Crimea was built back in 1944, but was destroyed within a year by sea storms, and was never rebuilt. There are several projects for the new bridge in existence, valued between $700 million and one billion dollars.

As a separate, transportation related, piece of good news for Russia’s south - Russian government allocated extra money for reconstruction and maintenance of Russia’s roads. And the largest part of it - 86.7 billion rubbles ($3.7 bln), instead of originally planned 27 billion ($1.1 bln) just this year alone - will go into “Olympic” roads: М4 “Don”, connecting Moscow and Novorossiysk, and М27, Dzhubga - Sochi. 

Source: lenta.ru

This is continuation of the photoset from the Gazprom’s new ski resort in Krasnaya Polyana. These photos are from the top of the ski-lift first stage at the Psekhako Ridge. You can find photos of resot’s base here.

Mountain Resort (second stage)

Gazprom carries out engineering and preparation for the second stage of Mountain Resort construction. The second construction stage includes pistes, ski stadium and other facilities at the Psekhako Ridge. Said facilities will be used during the Olympic Winter Games in 2014. Construction of the Olympic Ski Stadium with operating facilities will be finished in 2010.

The second construction stage also includes 4 ropeways, ski lifts, summer sports facilities, multilevel car parking, 300 and 180 room hotels, Cultural Center with waterpark, conference halls, restaurants, cafes and trading area.
- from press release

So, here we go, the photos: Read the rest of this entry »

Here are several photos from brand spanking new «Laura» resort (official name “The mountain-ski center «Gazprom»”) launched this winter season!

At present Gazprom constructs a Mountain Resort in the Achipse River valley and at the Psekhako Ridge. Gazprom finishes the first stage of construction including 8 ropeways, ropeway lower station with utility rooms, ski lifts, 220 room hotel, 32 villas, guest house for official delegations, volleyball playground, tennis courts as well as energy supply, security, communication facilities and other operating and auxiliary facilities. In the end of 2007 Gazprom plans to commission all facilities of the first construction stage.

- from Gazprom’s press release

See map and all 15 photos: Read the rest of this entry »

Tender will be announced for the constructtion of the high speed railway between Sochi and Moscow in the near future. «Russian Railways» in partnership with Canadian Bombardier and Italian Finnmechanica announced that will compete for this project. Their $19.6 bln plan is to modernize existing infrastructure, and have trains going with max speeds of 200 km/h (125 m/h) and reaching final destination in just 15.5 hours. Night time rides will be setup, so passengers could get on the train in the evening, and arrive to Sochi next morning.

Dmitry Kugarov published a few photos of future Federation Island — artificial island in the Black Sea:

So, as I mentioned in my previous post I recently spent two weeks in Sochi. Actually, I spent a little less there, as I went to Nebug, a small town north of Sochi, for a couple of days with my friends.

Since I came back everyone, who heard about Sochi’s Olympic future, keeps asking me what’s being done for the Olympics, what has changed - but what could change in two month?! Not much. Nothing, in fact, changed so far. We arrived to the same old airport terminal, no major constructions throughout the city, though I haven’t visited Krasnaya Polyana this time, where I hear some road constructions are on the way.

Well, some thing have changed, but not related to the Olympic bid win. New night clubs opened, such as “Platforma” club in the sea, which instantly overtook a crown from club “Malibu” as most popular open-air club in Sochi. Many places with beautiful landscaping jobs now have green highlights at night – this makes everything look beautiful. The public transportation problem as bad ad ever, and is worsened by the increasing amount of traffic in the city. At times the traffic in Sochi is as bad as it is in Moscow or Manhattan during peak hours. I almost missed my flight to Moscow sitting in the traffic. Of course, this goes back to the “roads problem” that our government promises to fix by the Olympics.

While I was there, the preparations to host the The Sixth International Investment Forum and following visits by Prime Minister of Spain Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, and the President of the International Olympic Committee Jacques Rogge were on the way. This caused some roads to be closed, which just added problems for drivers in Sochi, and subsequently increased taxi ride prices for the rest.

One major change, however, did take place - Read the rest of this entry »

Previously promised program for monitoring forests and effects of “olympic” construction projects in Sochi and Krasnodar region has been launched. Monitoring data will be published and publicly available on official website of the Federal Forestry Ministry, any violation will be reported to the government authorities.

The digital data gathered during this program will also be used to create new maps and locate places with high risk of avalanches.

This program is part of wider federal program for monitoring environment in Sochi during realization of the Federal Targeted Program for the development of Sochi.

«Real Estate Krasnodar» blog has a couple of new good articles on real estate in Sochi.
Visit it to read professional analysis and forecast of real estate market in Sochi, and find out new-built property prices.

• Average prices for residential premises under construction in districts of Sochi
• SOCHI Real Estate Market Development Forecasts

According to preliminary calculations, the sledge and bobsled course to be constructed for Olympic Gmes in Sochi will be longest and fastest in the World. This will be thwe second bobsled course in Russia, the construction of the first one will be completed some time next year near Moscow. Head coach of the Russian bobsled team said that Moscow course will most likely be used mostly for training and testing on new bobsleds, while Sochi’s course will most likely become course for competitions.

• “Base Element”, the new owner of Sochi airport, is arguing with “Russian Railways” on weather to build a light railway from the Airport to the city’s center and future Olympic venues, or to build full railway extention from the Adler rail station to the Airport. Time frames and money are the questions at hand.
• “Systema Gals” development company plans to build 100 000 sq. meters resort complex by year 2010, with will include five-star hotel and apartments, and 100 meters tall tower. I hope people don’t go building little Manhattan in Sochi, as Sochi is in seismic zone.
• “Moscow Capital” bank will invest $150 mln in building “Solnechnaya Polyana” (Sunny Valley) alpine skiing resort in Krasnaya Polyana - where Olympic skiing and sliding venues will be located. The construction will start in 2008, and is to be completed by year 2013.
• Land prices in Sochi exceeded Moscow prices. One “sotka” (100 sq meters) by the sea now costs $150 000.

News stories that caught my eye; some are new, some are updated:

• Over $622 million are allocated for Sochi program for the rest of this year from federal budget. Next year this sum will be $1.2 bln, and in 2009-2014 around $1 bln every year. Additional funds will be allocated in Krasnodar Regon’s and Sochi’s budgets, and more money will come from private investments.
• Business delegation from Belgium and Luxemburg will visit Sochi in May 2008 to learn about the opportunities in preparation for the Olympics. They are interested in construction, construction materials and hi-tech infrastructure projects.
• Second hydroelectric power station in Krasnaya Polyana will be completed by 2010 and will comply with all environmental requirements, including requirements of the Kyoto Protocol. Moreover, three billion dollars - a quarter of the promised 12 billion dollars investments, will be spent on upgrading Sochi’s energy sector. And this is a good thing, if you’ll remember this year’s (and every year’s) power outages in Sochi. All planned energy related projects are promised to be completed by year 2012.
• Around $117 million will be spent on four telecommunications projects in Sochi.
• Over 50 000 police officers will be ensuring safety in Sochi during the Olympics — that’s three and a half times fewer than during Summer Olympics in Moscow in 1980. Large role will be given to the hi-tech tools, such as state of the art video surveillance systems and new systems setup around the city with direct lines to the police.
• Three backup airports will be built for the Olympics in Russia’s South: in Gelendzhyk (another Back Sea resort north of Sochi), Mineralnye Vody (”Mineral Waters”, a … mineral waters resort :)), and Krasnodar (region’s capital). Sochi’s airport will be upgraded to accept any size aircraft in almost any weather conditions.

Backup airports for 2014 Winter Olympics

Investment agreement about the construction of tourist recreation complex in the Black Sea was signed by the Krasnodar Kray administration with St.-Petersburg based “M-Industry” construction company during XI Saint-Petersburg International Economic Forum couple of weeks ago.

The artificial island, named Federation Island, will have residential area, hotels, restaurants, malls, year-round yacht parking, various sea attractions - aquarium, oceanarium, and many other. Planned location is Khosta district - my home area. No dates are set yet.

Sounds good? Not to me, and for so many reasons I don’t know where to start. And, unlike developments in Adler (in the planned “Olympics” area), which will improve district’s infrastructure and people’s lives, this one will improve nothing. I want more information on this, but right now I don’t see how it possibly can be a good idea.

Based in Netherlands, European Technology and Investment Research Center (ETIRC) will help convert all Sochi’s busses to use hydrogen fuel. Contract with all the details will be signed by the end of this month, reports Max Media Group. The Dutch specialists will provide the technology to convert diesel and gasoline powered engines to use hydrogen fuel, and will build reservoirs and fuel stations around the city.

Fast sea ships will be operating between Sochi and Anapa, smaller Black Sea resort in Russia. These ships can reach speeds of 70 km/hr (44 mi/hr) and will operate during summer-fall seasons. The will also make stops in other sea-side cities.

Until the breakup of the Soviet Union, this was one of the common ways of transportation in Sochi. Because of the overloaded roads, and common visits of high-level international guests, I wish this was returned as in-town transportation, not just for long distance rides.