Russia jails environmentalist ahead of Sochi Olympics

Russian courts sentence Evgeny Vitishko, an environmentalist and critic of the Sochi Olympics construction projects, to three years in prison less than a month before the Olympics.

A court in the southern region of Krasnodar — where the Sochi Winter Olympics open next month — sentenced environmentalist Evgeny Vitishko to three years in a penal colony. A geologist and member of the Environmental Watch of the North Caucasus, Vitishko is an outspoken critic of construction for Sochi, a massive development project that comes not only with the heftiest Olympic price tag to date — a staggering $51 billion — but also, according to some critics, the unflattering label of most damaging to the environment.

Read it: Russia cracks down on green activism ahead of Sochi Olympics