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Putin inspected Olympic sites in Sochi

Olympic reported to be prepared by 96%

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin inaugurated a campus of the Russian International Olympic University in Sochi and held a meeting over the degree to which the Olympic sites are prepared, Kommersant daily reported. Five months are left before the opening of the Olympics in Sochi.

Putin criticized the quality of services at the Sochi airport Adler. Olympstroy head Sergei Gaplikov noted that the Olympic sites are prepared by 96%. However, the RusSki Gorki jumping centre will be commissioned only in November. In the words of Gaplikov, 243 tasks on the program of run-up to the Olympics were finalized by September 15, another one hundred tasks will be completed soon. As many as 76,000 people, including 26,000 foreign citizens, are working at the Olympic sites. After recruited workers end their work, they go home immediately.

The university that has just begun working will teach such subjects as international business environment, sport diplomacy, the basics of sport administration, Komsomolskaya Pravda daily reported. Not only Russians, but also students from the whole world, including 13 Olympic champions, will study already in the first year of work of the university.

The coordinating centre of the Olympics headed by First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak held a drill in the mode of ‘real Olympics’. The disruption in the operation of the Sochi airport and a hurricane in Krasnaya Polyana were picked up as variants of emergency situations that hamper the normal course of the Olympics. The drill showed a high level of readiness of all services for the Games.

Two facilities in the Olympic Park - the Ice Cube curling centre and a central stadium, where opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympics will be held, are ready for commissioning by 99%. The degree of preparedness of the RusSki Gorki jumping centre makes 90%. The jump ramps were tested many times, this Olympic site will be commissioned at the end of November.

Putin intends to inspect personally the construction of uncompleted Olympic sites. He urged the public servants strictly to take every effort to finalize the construction works.