Has Russia dropped the ball on the Winter Olympics?

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Tickets aren't close to being sold out, even for high-profile events.

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Is this what happens when you choose a host city that is basically a backwater with no other big draws other than the Olympics and without the airport and hotel infrastructure necessary to support the events? Is this what happens when you create a public relations nightmare with your country's vocally regressive, anti-gay, anti-human rights policies?

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Ah, and Air Moldova flies from Chisinau - also, Europe, of sorts.

Europe of the pre-1989 sort, that is.

[Indy Texas 🇺🇦🇵🇸]

Well, there are pretty good beaches nearby... Except that, of course, it is winter There are some pretty famous caves also - except they are across the border in an internationally-unrecognized splinter of Georgia, where most people would not dare going and where there is no infrastructure for anything, anyway. I believe, there are some pretty fascinating oil pipelines and port facilities in Novorossiysk as well - it is not TOO far, if you are in for that sort of thing.

Sochi has always been Russia´s Cancun - well, with the obvious caveat that even a Russian can swim there only 4 or 5 months a year and that the hotels and other tourist facilities have always been fairly substandard. A great place for winter Olympics it is.

There are some direct flights from the West. Aeroflot and its subsidiaries fly from Istanbul and Tel Aviv, and are adding a flight from Frankfurt for the Olympics. Turkish Airlines also have flights from Istanbul, and a small Turkish low cost airline flies from Trabzon (as also does one of Russia´s more obscure carriers). Edelweiss (a small Swiss airline) is going to be flying from Zurich and Scandinavians from Oslo for the same purpose. A couple of provincial Russian carriers fly from Milan and one from Prague (keep in mind though, that most Western companies would not let their staff use these airlines for Russian flights: they do this to avoid high premiums that the insurers would otherwise insist on charging, for whatever reason you might imagine). Ah, and Air Moldova flies from Chisinau - also, Europe, of sorts.

Lol, Aeoroflot. Over my dead body...

Actually, ex-pats almost have to fly Aeroflot inside Russia (all via Moscow): most foreign employers would not even think of paying for anything else

Aeroflot is not too bad, BTW. Food is quite decent and the plains are fairly new. Also, same alliance as Delta-KLM-Air France.

I'd imagine some Americans might be a little unnerved by the way their branding is still firmly rooted in Mid-20th Century Eastern Bloc...



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