10.02 Olympic Spending to Be Probed by Supervisory Bodies – Putin

SOCHI, February 10 (RIA Novosti) – Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to speculate on whether the cost to develop infrastructure in Sochi ahead of the Olympic Games was inflated, saying Monday that the issue would be investigated later by authorities. 

“Let the supervisory bodies deal with this,” Putin said at a meeting of Sochi’s public council, which oversaw the city’s preparations for the winter sports extravaganza. “They will sort it out.”

The president did not specify which organizations would be responsible for investigating expenditures for the Olympics, which kicked off in Sochi last week. 

International media has heavily criticized Russia for the estimated $50 billion the government spent on getting ready for the Olympics, with some reports implying that as much as $30 billion of the sum had been embezzled. 

The widely cited price tag makes the Games in Sochi the most expensive ever, and more than three times the price of the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. 

Though corruption is a well-documented issue in Russia, few publications noted Sochi’s small size compared with previous Olympic host cities like London and Beijing when analyzing development costs. 

Putin noted in Monday’s meeting that Sochi undertook massive building projects – creating stadiums, roads, public transportation, hotels, restaurants and other services – specially for the Olympics over the last five to seven years.