Sochi residents risk fines if homes not renovated before Olympics

Residents of Sochi will have to make their homes presentable in time for the Winter Olympics in 2014.

­Property owners who fail to renovate facades and fences to the required standard will be fined 200,000 rubles.

The authorities hope this will result in Sochi's main tourist areas having a unified architectural style – 308 city streets are affected.

Local people and companies will have to renovate their property at their own expense. The only help they will receive will be cheap loans from the city.

This is not the only challenge Sochi residents have to face ahead of the Olympics.

The people of Sochi are also going to learn English whether they like it or not. English words and short phrases, together with their translations, have appeared all over town – from billboards and plasma screens to shops and public transport.

Locals will pick up 662 words before the games begin. City officials say that an average resident will come across each new word five times a day.

They will learn not only how to say "hello" and "goodbye," but also how to give directions in English. The first word they learnt today was "welcome."