Sochi Report -- Gazprom Unveils Olympic Investment; Organizers Seek More Foreign Finance

Sochi 2014 head Dmitry Chernyshenko shows off the sponsorship agreement signed with Sberbank on Friday. This week he is meeting with Italian business leaders (Sochi 2014)Sochi 2014 President and CEO Dmitry Chernyshenko met with a delegation of Italian business representatives Tuesday as part of a visit by the Italian Business Mission, which was headed by Italy’s Minister of Economic Development, Claudio Skayola.

Discussions centred on the investment opportunities for Italian companies in Russia’s first Winter Games. Several of the companies represented boast Olympic experience through acting as official suppliers to Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Turin 2006 and Beijing 2008.

Russia's Olympic chiefs hope to leverage the knowledge acquired by Italian companies in the Olympics to enhance 2014 preparations.

The Italian delegation visits Krasnodar Wednesday – the capital city of Russia’s Olympic region – for further meetings focusing on the opportunities ranging from engineering and construction to telecommunications. They are also meeting with members of the Krasnodar regional government to explore potential future collaboration.

Chernyshenko said there had been “huge interest” from Italian businesses in the 2014 Games. He held similar discussions with British business and investors in meetings last month.

“Commercial partners of Sochi 2014 will see unique benefits through the Games; from strengthened market position and platforms for innovation, to the opportunity to help shape the economic future of perhaps the most dynamically developing region of Russia,” he said.

The Italian Business Mission visit came a day after Gazprom revealed it would spend at least $2 billion on the Games. It will reportedly invest $838 million in facilities this year.

Gazprom's cash injection is said to be the largest investment plan in Games preparations, excluding federal budget expenditures. Its planned projects include building a skiing complex to accommodate 16,000 spectators and a four-star, 600-seat hotel for skiers 1,500 meters above sea level. It also plans to build a two-lane 16-mile highway to the Olympic venue.

Russia is spending some $12 billion in public and private investment to build most of its Olympic venues from scratch. A total of 247 projects are slated for completion by the time of the Games.

A Dmitry Kozak, Russia's deputy prime minister in charge of the Olympics, also spread the message about the investment opportunities in Sochi and the Krasnodar Region at the MIPIM real estate conference last month. (Sochi 2014)Sochi 2014 spokeswoman tells Around the Rings that Olympic and Paralympic preparations are going well. She said International Paralympic Committee officials will visit for a project review at the end of April.

A clearer picture of progress, particularly in the huge construction effort, will emerge during the IOC coordination commission's visit to the Black Sea resort for its annual inspection May 13-14.

Gazprom's investment plan coincided with news this week that Russia would spend $10 billion on preparations for the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup if it is chosen to host one of the tournaments in December next year. According to reports, about $1 billion would go on construction and rebuilding of stadia with the rest on infrastructure upgrades.

Russia's sports minister Vitali Mutko is due to deliver a report on the World Cup bid at a government meeting April 9. He is expected to tell ministers that five stadiums, including one being built to host events at the 2014 Olympics, will be ready by 2013.

Meanwhile, the race to become the next mayor of Sochi is heating up. The original list of 26 candidates was whittled down to nine by election officials on Friday.

Kremlin critic Boris Nemtsov and billionaire businessman Alexander Lebedev, another critic of the Russian government, are among those on the short list. But reports suggest they may yet be removed from the ballot. Andrei Bogdanov, who stood against Dmitry Medvedev in last year's presidential election, is also still in the running.

But acting Mayor Anatoly Pakhomov, a member of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's party, remains the favorite to win the election on April 26.

The new mayor will play a vital role in Olympic preparations and would be in power until the 2014 Games.

The Olympics has become a major issue in the mayoral race; some voters are said to be disillusioned by the way Games projects are being implemented. “At first everybody was glad we had the Olympics. But now most people in Sochi are fed up. Lots of people are being thrown out of their homes to make way for the Olympic village,” a taxi driver told Britain's Guardian newspaper last week.

With reporting from Mark Bisson.

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