Official website of the President of Russia

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President Vladimir Putin:

Dear Mr President!

Dear colleagues!

I am very happy to welcome you to Russia and to Sochi, the site of the 2014 Olympic Games.

First and foremost, I want to thank you for your work in Guatemala and, of course, all the members of the International Olympic Committee for the result.

We will make every effort to justify the confidence that you have shown in Russia and the city of Sochi.

You know that the tasks we have set ourselves in preparing for the Olympics go far beyond questions of sport. For us, this is an ideal opportunity to foster development in southern Russia and to address infrastructure and environmental issues.

When we talk about the environment, we unfortunately have to admit that at this point in a city of half a million people there is no proper sewage system, electricity supply or infrastructure. All this will have to be resolved in preparation for the Olympics.

I wish to inform you that we have decided on the structure of the agencies that will help prepare for the Olympic Games. We have re-designated the Presidential Council for Sport as the Council for Sport and Preparation for the Olympics. It will be made up of experts, including those from the environmental movement in Russia and various international organizations. They will resolve questions about building the Olympic facilities and developing infrastructure, using their extensive professional expertise and doing their job with the utmost transparency and openness.

A presidium headed by the Prime Minister of the Russian Federation will oversee the everyday business of the Council. This bureau, comprised of key cabinet ministers and representatives of other departments, will direct the preparation for the Olympics.

We are creating an Organising Committee for the Olympic Games, which will work directly with our colleagues from the International Olympic Committee. I understand that they are here with us today.

The Chairman of the Supervisory Board of this structure will be Vice-Premier Zhukov, who is well known to you. Mr Petrashenko will serve as executive director. He is also here, and you know him because of his involvement in preparing our application in Guatemala.

We decided to create a public corporation to prepare for the Olympic Games, which will address both infrastructure development and the construction of all Olympic facilities. This way we won’t incur losses and won’t end up creating a superfluous number of commercial and public structures. This will, as I said, be a public corporation headed by Mr Vainshtok. We decided that this would be a state corporation, since the federal budget will provide much of its funding, especially for the development of infrastructure. Naturally we intend to attract a large number of businesses, private companies, and we have already made such arrangements (some already tentatively formulated in the documents). We plan to cover about two-thirds of the cost through private investment. Mr Vainshtok is a proven organiser, a master-builder. He was the head of Transneft, one of our largest construction companies.

We agreed with the State Duma deputies that we will adopt two more laws this session. One is an Olympic law and the second relates directly to the corresponding public corporation. I hope that the legislative provisions will be implemented in due time and executed smoothly.

I have given orders to the Government of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Administration to involve the Sochi and Krasnodar Krai administrations in this work. This will ensure that the interests of the citizens living in Sochi and in the region where the Olympics will take place will be taken into account.

Dear Mr President!

We are very happy to see you and hope that as of now our contacts with our distinguished colleagues from the IOC will occur regularly. We very much hope that they provide us with the support and help we require. For our part, we are going to try and ensure that we comply with all of the IOC’s requirements as fully as possible.

Jacques Rogge (translated into English from a consecutive translation into Russian):

Mr President!

First and foremost, I would like to thank you for receiving our delegation during your stay in Sochi.

I would also like to take this opportunity, an opportunity that did not present itself in Guatemala, to thank you personally. In Guatemala I did not even have time to use the phone because you had already taken off [before the results were announced], but now I would like to personally congratulate you on Sochi’s victory.

I would also like to thank you for the important information regarding the structure of the various bodies which will build the Olympic facilities and engage in general preparations for the Olympic Games, as well as information regarding the creation of a public corporation.

And you can count on the International Olympic Committee’s full support as you prepare for the Games.

As you know, I have appointed Mr Jean-Claude Killy as head of the Coordination Commission. There is no need to introduce him because he is a legendary alpine skier. And he also benefits from unique experience in preparing the Olympic Games, particularly those that were held in Albertville in the Savoie region in 1992. He also served as chairman of the Turin Coordination Commission and will provide all necessary support.

As to Mr Felli, he is simply a walking encyclopedia of information regarding the Olympic Games and, in particular, with respect to winter sports.

Mr Killy and Mr Felli have already met today and yesterday, and had good contacts with your colleagues and with members of your team. And our mood is one of complete confidence but, nevertheless, there are several questions that we would like to discuss with you.

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