Russia is "doing everything" to put on a safe Winter Games come February and deter a "long line of threats" that could imperil them, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday.
In an interview with Reuters that was posted in original Russian on the government.ru website, Medvedev made no explicit mention of terrorist threats made by Islamist rebels in southern Russia to target the Games in nearby Sochi.
But he acknowledged the size of the task in securing the February extravaganza, whose goal is to showcase a modern and stable Russia.
"We will obviously do everything to make the Games safe," he said. "We understand that any event of this kind is always a collection of problems, and it is always necessary for the government that stages the Olympic Games to take exhaustive safety measures," Medvedev added.
"You know that in our country there really exists a long line of threats," he said. "So everyone will be working, as they say, as hard as possible, and the state will, on the whole, try to provide absolute security for the Olympic Games."
The Games on the Black Sea run February 7-23, but the Federal Security Service has imposed limitations on movement in and around the southern city in a much broader window spanning January 7 through March 21.
Federal counter-terrorism officials pledged safety at international sports events to be held in Russia as a Chechen militant leader called on Islamist fighters to "compromise" the event, prompting Russia to impose controlled zones and forbidden zones during that time.
The controlled zones include all Olympic venues and infrastructure, including the coastal Olympic Park and the mountain cluster of skiing facilities; as well as all transport hubs including air, sea and rail.
The forbidden zones, meanwhile, are to include the border area separating Russia with the Georgian breakaway region of Abkhazia, which is just a few kilometers east of the coastal facilities; as well as Sochi National Park, an environmentally protected area.
Published by exclusive arrangement with Around the Rings’ Sochi 2014 media partner RIA-Novosti.
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