Lucy Nicholson/Reuters
According to Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, the journalists who have reported deplorable conditions in Sochi hotel rooms are trying to malign the Games. And how does he know? "We have surveillance video from the hotels that shows people turn on the shower, direct the nozzle at the wall and then leave the room for the whole day," he said Thursday. When a reporter went to ask him further about hotel surveillance, he was pulled away by an aide. According to Kozak, out of 100,000 guests, only 103 have registered complaints (wonder why). Meanwhile, Putin's spokesman said that the complaints were more a reflection of taste, declaring, "Everywhere someone doesn't like the food, someone doesn't like the hotel, someone thinks the mattress is too hard, etc."