Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin took part in a live video linkup with members of Russia's Olympic team in Vancouver on Thursday, saying he was confident they would be successful.
"On behalf of all the fans, the millions of us, I want to wish you success, strength of character and good luck," Putin said from the media center of the Sochi 2014 Winter Games.
"We all look forward to the start and await your results," the prime minister told the Russian competitors at the Russia House in Vancouver, where the 2010 Winter Olympics open on Friday. "We are confident that you will cope with all the emotional difficulties, and overcome everything to achieve great success."
By the time the Games end on February 28, Russian officials hope the team will have surpassed their medal haul from Turin 2006, when they won eight gold, six silver and eight bronze medals.
The video linkup was broadcast live and Putin seemed to enjoy the conversation with the athletes in Canada. The prime minister is a noted sports fan and participant, and was the driving force behind Russia's bid to host the 2014 Games.
He took the unprecedented step of delivering a speech in English to delegates at the International Olympic Committee meeting in Guatemala to select the host city, and after talking with the members of the Russian team he turned to preparations for the Sochi.
Poking fun at news reports of how snow has had to be imported for the Vancouver event, the broadcast showed pictures of the snow-bound Caucasus mountains, where the alpine events will take place in 2014, and Putin then described the progress being made creating large amounts of infrastructure from scratch.
"By the end of 2011, the first skiing competitions should be held at some sites," Putin said.
He said that six Olympic facilities in Sochi have been completed while work continues at 50 sites.
"At a few of them, work goes on around the clock in three shifts," he said, before going on to detail the scale of the task.
"Overall, we have to build 207 facilities, of which 14 are pure sport, 260 kilometers of roads, 105 kilometers of railroad, 10 vehicle and 11 rail tunnels, each of which represents a large construction site," Putin said.
He added that the infrastructure to be built included 47 bridges and viaducts, 384 kilometers of pipelines, a hydroelectric power plant, five thermal power stations, 18 substations, an airport, a seaport, two hospitals and even a nursery for endangered species.
The prime minister told journalists after the broadcast that the financial crisis had made attracting private investment harder than expected, but said almost 500 billion rubles ($16.5 billion) had been committed.
"This is a good result," he said.
SOCHI, February 11 (RIA Novosti)
