Sochi is the second venue for the IOC Evaluation Commission, which will carry out its evaluation from February 19-23. The first candidate city, South Korea's PyeongChang, was inspected February 14-17.
On March 14-17, the commission will visit the third and final candidate city for the 2014 Olympics - Salzburg, in Austria.
Vladimir Putin declined to assess Russia's chances of winning the bid and praised Sochi's rivals.
"Sport is always a struggle full of the unexpected. I am convinced that the Olympics will be interesting and time will show who the winner is," Putin said.
The president said Sochi is "a unique place" with a mild climate and would be a good venue for the Olympics.
"Sochi is the only place [in Russia] with a combination of developed infrastructure, mild climate and such ideal conditions for winter sports," he said.
He said cooperation with environmental organizations in the preparations for the Olympics is highly important.
"We have established good contacts with international and Russian environmental organizations. It would be a serious mistake not to take into account the opinion of ecological organizations," Putin said adding that no damage should be done to the environment during the preparations.
He also praised the Krasnaya Polyana ski resort, which is being developed by energy giant Gazprom, and said Russia could develop ski resorts on a par with France or Switzerland.
"We have better natural conditions than many other European resorts and today we have an opportunity to develop [the resort] on the basis of modern technologies of the 21st century," Putin said.
He said Sochi will be developed as a ski and sea resort whether it wins the Olympic bid or not.
The 13-member IOC Commission, headed by its Vice President Chiharu Igaya, will assess the three candidate cities using 17 basic criteria, such as transportation, accommodations, technology, media facilities, environment and climate, finance, security, sports venues, Olympic villages and other amenities.
The results of the commission's findings will be summarized, published and submitted to all IOC members no later than one month before the official announcement of the 2014 Olympics host city, which will take place July 4, 2007 during the IOC's 119th session in Guatemala City.
