Appeal to Russian government over Olympics 'ecology threat' in Sochi

In response to Russia's bid to host the 2014 Winter Olympics in the southern resort city of Sochi, the World Wildlife Fund's Chief Executive Officer in Russia, Igor Chestin, says the games may pose a threat to the local environment.

“This Monday we wrote a letter to the President of the Russian Federation, Mr Putin, expressing our concern about the situation with the preparations for the Olympic Games in Sochi, as well as the implementation of the Federal Target programme on the development of the city of Sochi as a mountain resort. And the reason for that is that the programme itself was not submitted and did not pass the environment expertise. As a result of that some very principle areas for big wild life are in danger. The reason we wrote to the President is that there is a very limited time before the evaluation mission of the International Olympic Committee comes to Russia. They are coming this coming weekend. And there is a very short time for the government to react and to resolve the conflict, which is growing bigger and bigger between the environment organisations and the governmental decisions,” Igor Chestin said.

To find a solution to this problem Russia will shortly create an Ecological Council.

It will include members of public environmental organizations and other experts, who will work on preparing the Black Sea resort for the 2014 Olympic games.

The head of Russia's Environmental watchdog, Oleg Mitvol, says all developments must be built in compliance with the federal law.

“Actually we are in close contact with the WWF. What they pointed out in their letter is that some companies are trying to use the area near the Olympic sites for their businesses and break the law. We absolutely uphold the opinion of the WWF, that these companies cannot violate environmental regulations of the Russian Federation territory. In our talk with Mr Chestin, we both agreed that Russia needs the Olympics but arrangements have to be made in compliance with the law,” he noted.