The budget for the state company overseeing much of the construction work for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi will be cut by two-thirds this year, a top Russian official said on Tuesday.
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, urged companies to honor their commitments in Sochi and organizers announced a US$180 million top-tier sponsorship deal with state oil company Rosneft.
This year’s budget for the Olympstroi company was originally set at nearly 50 billion rubles (US$1.4 billion), but now will be cut by 33 billion rubles, Regional Development Minister Viktor Basargin said in a meeting with Putin’s council on sports.
Basargin also said that some of the funds cut this year would be compensated for by money that had been budgeted in the past two years but not used.
Putin acknowledged that the country’s economy was going through a “difficult time” and called on private business leaders to keep their promises regarding construction projects in Sochi.
“However hard it is, one should begin financing the projects or give them back to us,” Putin said without naming the companies or specific projects.
Some of Russia’s biggest corporations have committed to various Olympic projects — ranging from roads to construction of ski resorts.
Most of these companies have been badly hit by the crisis, including Oleg Deripaska’s investment vehicle Basic Element, which is supposed to play a big role in delivering the Olympics.
Deripaska has recently sold some of his assets and is facing margin calls from creditors. He has been widely reported to be asking for government aid for his failing enterprises.
Putin mentioned that 20 Olympic projects — which he described as “commercially lucrative” — still have not attracted investors.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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