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Putin checks readiness of Russkiye Gorsk ski jumping facility

KRASNAYA POLYANA, January 03, /ITAR-TASS/. President Vladimir Putin has visited the Russkiye Gorki ski jumping facility, which has been built for the Olympic Games.

Putin has visited the facility several times. A month before the president decided to check the facility’s readiness.

Sberbank head German Gref has told Putin about the facility’s particularities. “The facility is 90 percent ready,” Gref said, adding that all works would be ended by January 20 when the facility would be “frozen” till the Olympic Games.

For the last time Putin visited the facility on November 27, 2013.

Two ski jumping facilities were built in February 2012. However, the construction of the infrastructure dragged on and needed additional expenditures. Putin, who visited the construction site in early 2013, criticised North Caucasus Resorts Company and its head Akhmed Bilalov, who was responsible for the project.

Later, Sberbank was instructed to end the construction. Bilalov was dismissed from the company and the Russian Olympic Committee (he was the committee’s vice-president). Then criminal proceedings were instituted against Bilalov upon the abuse of powers.

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