Local authorities evicted Valentina Volkova, 71, a retired schoolteacher, and her children and grandchildren in August 2011 with only a few days' notice before demolishing the apartment building they lived in to make way for construction in advance of the 2014 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games in Sochi. The Russian state corporation Olympstroy, responsible for delivering the Olympic venues and infrastructure, sued Volkova in order to avoid compensating her with an apartment of fully comparable size and location to the one she owned and had lived in for 20 years. Volkova battled with Olympstroy through the courts, ultimately winning on appeal in December 2012. However, Olympstroy has refused to comply with the court decision and has yet to relocate Volkova to the apartment indicated by the court.

© 2012 Brent Stirton/Reportage by Getty for Human Rights Watch