31 January 2009, 17:00
IOC believes that Russia will cope with preparing Sochi to Olympiad-2014
Jean-Claude Killy, Chairman of the IOC Coordination Commission for preparing Olympiad-2014, has expressed his confidence that Russia will manage to get ready timely for holding the Winter Olympic Games; however, he has noted that today Sochi is not ready to be an Olympic capital.
"The general impression is very good. Gradually, everything gets into due places. Currently, you're certainly not ready yet to host the Olympic Games, but I'm sure the respective works will be coped with in the time remaining," said Mr Killy at today's press conference in Sochi.
Assurances of the Russian Prime Minister of successful course of implementing the preparation plans have caused trust in the head of the IOC Coordination Commission. "I can't challenge what the Premier said. The fact that the city is considerably changing is visible even from the board of the airplane," the "Interfax" is quoting Jean-Claude Killy as saying.
The "Gazeta.ru" writes that Mr Killy has noted that the IOC experts who worked in Sochi for the previous week had made some remarks on ecology issues.
Meanwhile, in the opinion of Valery Suchkov, expert of the Public Chamber of Sochi on housing and communal matters, the Olympic development of Sochi is incompatible with violations of the preservation principles of the unique territory of the city-resort; unfortunately, it is accompanied by such violations.
"The 2014 Winter Olympiad is a mirror of social, legal and political processes underway in Russia," said Mr Suchkov. "Frequently, the bright and pompous facade of officially proclaimed achievements and successes is used to carefully hide problems and irresponsible actions."
