When Sochi won the battle to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, many claimed that investment in a dilapidated Soviet resort, partially on swampland, was just for show, and that the city would quickly turn into a Potemkin village.
Predictions of the city’s decline after the investment attracted by the games so far appear to be inaccurate. On Wednesday, the mayor of the area, popular as a domestic holiday destination for Russians, and increasingly as a residence for those seeking a better climate, said that it was growing at an almost unprecedented pace. According to Alexey Kopaygorodsky, the permanent population has nearly doubled from just over 300,000 in 2010 and now stands at more than 600,000.
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