Russians Reportedly Spend $45M On 'Dual Toilet' Bathrooms For The Olympics

By Christy Strawser, digital director

DETROIT (CBS Detroit) Forget Washington politicians' $500 haircuts and $10,000 drill bits, Russia is reportedly taking government spending -- let's call it waste -- to a whole new level.

An astute reporter with the BBC, Steve Rosenberg, got a preview of the Olympic facilities in Sochi, Russia, ahead of the winter games.

And he couldn't believe his eyes.

That's right folks, the bathrooms feature multiple toilets paired together and set right out there in the open.

Twitter exploded after his revelation, and the UK Mirror reported government opposition leader Alexei Navalny used the snap to question how the game's allegedly inflated budget has been spent.

Translated, his tweet says: "This is a men's toilet in a Sochi Olympics media centre for 1.5 billion rubles [$45 million]."

Multiple media sources recently reported these Olympics games will be the most expensive ever, ballooning up to a reported $50 billion budget as Putin seeks to cast his country in the most glamorous possible light.

But apparently when it came to the restrooms, there wasn't a square (foot) to spare.

While uncommon in the United States and Europe, there are parts of the world where shared toilets are par for the course.

Rosenberg shared this snap of a similar set-up at Kazan University.

In:
• Sochi
• Vladimir Putin