The New York Times had a truly shocking expose on the Sochi games.

It showed that the cost had ballooned to $50 billion or so but that half of that had allegedly been stolen by Putin sidekicks.

Are they kicking back to the great oligarch himself?

You bet your sweet snowplow.

Among the majordomos benefitting from the massive building are two former schoolboy-wrestling friends of the Great One and numerous state officials who owe their existence to Putin.

The wrestling brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg got 15 percent of the entire Olympic budget for their companies; that’s about $8 billion dollars.

Ras-Putin spreads such fear that two officials fled for their lives when their projects came up short. One later claimed they had tried to poison him with mercury.

It also showed that the massive construction had caused such environmental damage that the United Nations has asked that Russia present a plan how to restore the pristine environment ruined beyond recall once the games are over.

Sochi is based in the Western Caucasus, which previously was the “only large mountain area in Europe that has not experienced significant human impact.

Not any more as he once pristine Mzymta River is now a polluted muddy brown color that may never be restored.

All this so that a bunch of skiers and bobsledders can bump and grind their way across our screens for a few weeks.

Big sport is big business. Along with the revelation that Qatar is using slave labor from the Philippines to build its World Cup facilities in 2020, this Russian news is very disturbing.

But who can stop Ras–Putin now?

No one it seems. The almighty ruble has reduced the Olympic spirit, aims and goals to rubble.

A tragic case indeed, and no one has shouted “Nyet”.