Wrong construction materials and improper storage of seats are just few of the misconducts found at Zenit Arena’s construction site. It turns out there was no building permit for the first 2 years and last 3 years of construction works were carried out without a complete design…

All of Russia seems to be mocking the new stadium in Saint Petersburg for quite some time. Maybe except for the city’s residents, because they’re the ones actually paying for it. It’s still not clear how much, but most probably not less than 43.8 billion rubles ($1.45 billion, €1.1 billion). If everything goes along plan and the venue is ready between 2015 and 2017.

Except for the fact that it was supposed to be ready in 2008 and it’s barely half way done. Prime minister Medvedev already announced the city will not get any more subsidies from federal budget. Afterwards he insisted for Russia’s top auditors APR (Auditorskaya Palata Rossii) to check the investment for misconducts.

Outcome of the audit is rather disturbing, with numerous flaws being discovered, both technical and legal. It turns out general contractor Transstroy had used rubble from previous stadium as construction material for the new one against conditions. Also, 63,000 seats bought already for the stands have been stored improperly, which may negatively influence their quality upon installation.

But this isn’t the most disturbing part. Auditors revealed that construction was ongoing without a building permit in 2006-2008! Once the permit was obtained, works were done without complete project documentation (2010-2012). This was caused by numerous changes to the project (including important elements like the roof, seating layout and capacity) which meant that documentation delivered by designers became outdated shortly afterwards as further changes were implemented.

Below are the latest photos published by Zenit, dating back to December 26: