Dmitry Kozak, the minister of the regional development of the Russian Federation: «The money invested into the Olympics won’t be wasted»

The visits of the representatives of the IOC have shown that we understand each other perfectly and together we’ll be able to do our best to make the Olympic Games of 2014 the best Games in their history.

However such mutual understanding doesn’t mean that we can relax. On the contrary, we are ready to follow a strict and tense schedule. The scale of the works doesn’t scare us. The key objective of the organization of the Games is to create transport, building, and power infrastructure. The construction of the engineering infrastructure units, which will improve the ecological situation in Sochi, will be started this year already. We’ll support individual investors. They will be provided with projects of the sports units and infrastructure, prepared for the Olympics in Sochi, by the end of this year. We are sure that these investments will be profitable before, during and after the Games.

A cost estimation of the Olympic units in comparison with the foreign ones has been carried out during the creation of the federal target program dedicated to the organization of the Olympics and the development of Sochi. We can’t expect any revolutionary financial solutions, as or expenses are not very different from those of Turin or Vancouver.

I’m sure that the money invested into the Olympics won’t be wasted. The country will be enriched with a first-rate resort, including a skiing one, which we don’t have at our disposal today. Besides, this is an additional investment into the development of the Russian economy as a whole.