Private investors in Sochi Olympic facilities knew the risks before plowing in funds, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said Friday in an apparent response to concerns that costs may be spiraling out of control.
Metals billionaire Vladimir Potanin, head of the Interros holding company that is building the Rosa Khutor ski resort, has said he is counting on the government to compensate the extra costs associated with staging the Olympics there.
But, in what may be a rebuttal, Kozak said local authorities had already granted significant concessions on leasing the land upon which the resort is built.
"We will do everything the law allows to help investors," he said. "But we understand that we have had more than one conversation with the respective investors that this is the risk of the investors themselves," said Kozak, who is charged with overseeing Games preparations.
The government even offered cheap loans and generous repayment windows in the wake of the 2008 crisis to assist in the financing of the projects, Kozak said.
Potanin announced earlier this year that only one-quarter of the $2.2 billion earmarked to turn Rosa Khutor into an Olympic venue had been spent. He insisted building would be finished on time.
Sochi Olympic venues are split into to clusters: a seaside cluster of ice arenas for the skating events, and a mountain cluster of ski facilities 45 kilometers away.
The government is bearing the cost of the coastal cluster through state company Olympstroy because those arenas are expected to be loss-making.
Potanin's Interros is one of three companies investing in the mountains. The other two are state bank Sberbank, which has built the RusSki Gorki ski jump; and gas giant Gazprom, which has constructed the Laura biathlon complex.
