Vladimir Putin Fires Olympic Official On Television

This week was supposed to serve as a celebration of all the progress Russia has made getting together the infrastructure needed for the Sochi Olympics. Unfortunately, one year ahead of 2014’s Opening Ceremonies, not everything is falling into place as quickly as expected, and that discrepancy became abundantly clear this morning when Russian President Vladimir Putin took International Olympic Committe President Jacques Rogge and Coordination Commission Chairman Jean-Claude Killy on a tour to see the ski jump at Russkie Gorky and to his horror, discovered construction hasn’t begun on the spectator stands.

According to The Washington Post, an enraged Putin called officials over and began grilling them on what exactly happened. Eventually, he discovered that the construction manager, Akhmed Bilalov, originally owned the land, sold it to the government, won a job supervising its construction and had watched costs soar from $40 million to $267 million, all without even starting the spectator area. Not surprisingly, Putin didn’t take the news too well, and Bilalov was quickly fired.

The entire interrogation happened in full view of the cameras. To some, that’s little more than evidence of how quickly Putin likes to handle situations, but to others, it’s evidence of the President’s much larger plan to send a warning to any other workers who might be taking advantage of the government or not working as hard as possible.

Putin might not be the most popular world leader, but he certainly knows how to get things done.