Ria Novosti Roundup -- Sochi Blackout; Government Assistance; Banknotes

Power Station Opens as Sochi Athletes Are Hit by Blackouts

Russia was due to unveil a new $309 million power station Tuesday to guarantee electricity supplies for the upcoming Winter Olympics in Sochi just as athletes training for the event complained of blackouts.

An opening ceremony for the Dzhubginsky power station, about 200 kilometers (120 miles) outside Olympic host city Sochi, was set to take take place Tuesday afternoon, a spokesman for power company Inter RAO told RIA Novosti.

Russia is hurrying to complete preparations for the 2014 Games, which are believed to have already cost more than $50 billion, making them the most expensive of all time.

The competition is scheduled to open in the Black Sea resort town of Sochi on February 7.

International athletes currently participating in preliminary training sessions at the specially built Olympic sporting venues have been complaining of rolling blackouts in the area around the ski resort of Rosa Khutor.

"Living by candlelight here in Russia! #comebackpower" wrote Canadian luge athlete Arianne Jones on Twitter on Monday evening.

The tweet was accompanied by a picture of candles she was using instead of electricity.

Sanki Olympic Sliding Center, the venue for bobsleigh and luge events in the mountains outside Sochi, has been hit by power cuts that have reportedly disrupted training schedules and could damage conditions at the facility.

Venues for skiing and biathlon events are nearby.

"No power/running water for 2 days in all Rosa Khutor area near Sochi. Ice @ Sliding Center track melting, Luge cancelled #CmonMan," Canadian Olympic official Martin Goulet wrote on Twitter on Monday.

The Dzhubginsky power station was originally due to be launched last week, but the opening ceremony was delayed.

The facility, which the Russian government approved in 2009 as part of its Olympic construction program, cost about 10 billion rubles ($309 million) to build, state-run Rossiya 24 television reported Tuesday.

Sochi Investors Seek State Help to Cover Losses – Paper

Russian investors in construction projects for the Sochi Olympic Games are demanding government assistance to help them pay back billions of dollars in state loans they took out to fund unprofitable projects for the flagship event, a media report said Friday.

Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev plans to meet the investors this month to discuss measures to help them cover their loan debts, Vedomosti business daily reported Friday.

Russia’s state-owned lender Vneshekonombank issued loans worth 241 billion rubles ($7.5 billion) to investors involved in the massive construction projects in the southern city resort of Sochi in preparation for the February 2014 games.

But the businessmen, including some of Russia’s richest billionaires, say they need additional government support to help cover their debts, including tax relief and loan restructuring.

Business sources quoted in the article said their investments in Sochi had turned out to be unprofitable, and it would be hard for the companies involved to pay back the loans after the Olympic Games. The contractors involved blame the government for demanding changes to some of the building work involved after the original costings were made.

President Vladimir Putin, who has made the Sochi Games a personal project, leaned heavily on many of the investors to get involved in the project in the first place, according to earlier media reports.

Olympstroi, the state company overseeing the construction for the Olympics, has a warranty fund that can cover no more than 30 billion rubles, and " if the investors declare a default" the federal budget will be required to cover Vneshekonombank’s losses, the paper says.

Neither Medvedev’s press secretary or any of the investors in the Sochi games commented on the matter to Vedomosti.

Infographic: Russia Issues 100-Ruble Olympic Bills

RIA Novosti highlights the official 100-Ruble Russian banknotes and previous instances of Olympic Money in this infographic.

Click here to view the infographic.

Published by exclusive arrangement with Around the Rings’ Sochi 2014 media partner RIA-Novosti.

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