It's all very simple. Putin is part of a mafia; they do not turn in their own. He gave his friends an opportunity "to earn some cash," and now he is forced to deal with things as they are. He tried to remove someone, but no matter where he turned, the interests of friends were always quickly discovered.

But there have been four directors of [Olympics company] Olimpstroy in the last few years; Putin cannot completely close his eyes to what is happening, can he?

Yes, because there is such a mess there that he has nothing left to do. But keep in mind that in 2010, there were 27 criminal cases opened up on grounds of fraud at Olimpstroy, and not a single one of them reached the courts.

You also exposed the myth that the Olympics is being built at the expense of private investors, since according to your figures, 96 percent of the capital investments are passing through the state budget. What is the role of [aluminum billionaire] Oleg Deripaska and Vladimir Potanin in this process? And why in general did they have to get dragged into this escapade and risk their own money?

Have you seen The Godfather? To paraphrase a famous quotation from that film, I will answer: Putin made them an offer they couldn't refuse. For example, Deripaska undertook construction of the airport, cargo port, and Olympic Village. The total investment was to have been 45 billion rubles. He has already spent 40 billion on it to date. But since almost all the Olympics projects are a loss, all the private investors have become victims of this affair. Deripaska suffered doubly. The cargo port which he had built especially for the Olympics was not only washed away by a hurricane; Putin then announced that the port wasn't needed because it was too far away. But on the whole, it is really the case: the Olympics are being built almost entirely at the taxpayers' expense. Moreover, at the end of last year, the authorities officially announced that almost all the Olympic facilities without exception have been built at a loss and will never pay for themselves.

But wasn't it stated in the application that some of the stadiums will be able to be dismantled and moved?

They've now rejected that idea because they realized it would be too expensive. It's easier to build and abandon them then dismantle them and haul them somewhere.

You have paid particular attention to the participation in the Olympic construction of the Rotenberg brothers, about whom little is known in the West. What is their relationship with Putin?

Boris and Arkady Rotenberg are childhood friends of Vladimir Putin. The Rotenberg brothers' company obtained 15 percent of all the funds allocated for the Olympics. And they have skillfully expended these funds. For example, they built the Dzhugba-Sochi gas pipeline for 32.6 billion rubles, although another company was prepared to build it for 8 billion rubles. Or their company built the Kurortny Avenue bypass in Sochi -- an important transportation hub for the city. Each kilometer of that highway has cost them $170 million. It has turned out to be a golden highway. Moreover, they were handed no-bid construction contracts, without any of the most elementary rules of competition. If you look at the photograph of 1969 where Vladimir Putin and Arkady Rotenberg are standing in a group of friends (it was published in our brochure devoted to the Olympics), then the question arises: who in that duet is really the most important?