Official website of the President of Russia

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Good afternoon, Yury Petrovich,

I signed a law today on optimizing work in a number of areas concerning preparations for the Olympics [the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi]. I just heard a report on the subject from the Minister for Regional Development. Given this matter’s importance and complexity, I would like to hear from you how supervision of compliance with the laws concerning construction work, environmental legislation and a number of other areas related to the Sochi Olympics is being organized today. Are there any problems, and if so, how are we going to address them?

Prosecutor General Yury Chaika: Dmitry Anatolyevich, in accordance with the presidential instruction, we set up an inter-agency working group on legal support and application for the Sochi Olympics. We have set up a joint group that includes officials from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Federal Security Service, and the supervisory bodies. The group is headed by my first deputy, Mr Buksman.

I also issued an order setting up a specialised subdivision working in Sochi itself and answering directly to the prosecutor of the city of Sochi, whose status has been raised to that of first deputy prosecutor of Krasnodar Region. This group meets regularly and analyses and monitors the situation there.

Dmitry Medvedev: Good. I want you to keep working on these areas and also to pay attention to several issues in particular. First, although work is only starting to get underway, this is an enormous construction project, unprecedented in our modern history, and it is a project partly financed by budget money. We need to have trust in our colleagues, of course, but we also need to keep check on the way this budget money is being spent. Second, the government has been working recently on an area where you also have your part to play, and that is supervision of compliance with environmental laws. These two issues are both very important.

Yury Chaika: I understand. Yury Petrovich Trutnev [Minister for Natural Resources and Ecology] and I are in constant contact.

Dmitry Medvedev: Good.