Transcript of the beginning of the videoconference:

Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon. I'm very glad to welcome you here today. I can see that a very representative team has arrived in Sochi. Once again, I'd like to welcome all those who are visiting Sochi, especially International Olympic Committee (IOC) representatives Jean-Claude Killy and Gilbert Felli.

We meet regularly: our last meeting was in November. Now the representative delegation and evaluation commission have arrived to assess the progress of Olympic facilities construction. I'm sure that your Russian colleagues will make sure that you have everything you need to carry out your work. You will be able to see what has been done both in Imereti Valley and the mountains.

On the whole, the work is on schedule. We have distributed all of the planned financial resources, and in any case, there have been no financial delays. In 2010, the federal government will provide more than 29.7 billion roubles, while private investors will provide over 29 billion, that is, 29.1 billion roubles.

As of today, 153 facilities are in the design stages while construction has begun at 43 facilities.

Over 16,000 people and 2,500 units of equipment are involved in the construction of Olympic facilities.

I've always believed that we need to work closely with our colleagues from the International Olympic Committee. I understand that your work will continue through today and tomorrow, and I hope that you will provide comments, suggestions and modifications based on your time here, as you have typically done in the past.

For our part, we will do everything to respond to your proposals and will certainly adjust our work in line with your wishes. That's all I wanted to say for now.

I know that you've already been on site for a day and a half - both in the mountains and in Imereti Valley. I'd like to hear your first impressions of Olympic facilities construction in Sochi.

Jean-Claude Killy (as translated from French): Thank you very much, Mr Prime Minister. We're happy to see you and talk to you from Sochi. I would like to say that our meeting with the Russian delegation in Vancouver impressed us greatly. Our IOC experts have done a lot here in the past few weeks, and received everything they needed from our Russian partners. The experts are satisfied with what they've seen here.

Yesterday we visited almost all the sites and an exhibition, and were deeply impressed by what we saw. The commission expressed its satisfaction with the recent, significant progress. We were also impressed to learn from our Russian partners, with whom we visited the sites, that construction will be carried out 24 hours a day at 30 sites simultaneously.

All the initial requirements have been met, and we thank you for this. But it is obvious that there is still a lot of work ahead.

You have not only met the initial requirements, but have gone far beyond that: we altered your original plans, proposed certain changes, and you altered them too. And your work, including your efforts to protect the environment, has greatly impressed us.

Today we held a plenary meeting, where we heard reports from all your experts. The meeting lasted longer than expected, since the reports contained a lot of detailed and up-to-the-minute information. The next four years will be very exacting, and we'll be inspecting the sites regularly.

We were also impressed by the professionalism of the people we spoke with. I'd like to thank you personally for the attention you are giving to this project and for the work now underway.

Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Thank you very much. As I'm sure we all know, the Rosa Khutor new alpine ski resort is scheduled to be opened this year. Moreover, a new airport and railway terminal, sea port and two large electrical substations, which will supply electricity to all Olympic venues and facilities, will be opened in Sochi.

I'd like to stress once again that the Olympics gave us a unique opportunity to build up the infrastructure of southern Russia.

Mr Killy, you mentioned the need to ensure proper environmental protection, and I'd like to add that this is one of our top priorities.

As you know, we're trying to protect the environment as well as to restore what's been lost as a result of human activities.

I have already shown you what's been done to restore the population of Caucasian leopards, which were exterminated in the Caucasus in the 1950s.

We've reached further agreements with our Iranian partners, and hope to bring in a few more animals from Iran to implement the project here, in the Caucasus.

It's strange that leopards can be found on the coats-of-arms and other national symbols of the North-Caucasian republics but do not exist in the wild.

Turning our attention back to our main subject, the construction of Olympic venues and facilities, I'd like to stress once again that we will pay close attention to any feedback from the IOC Evaluation Commission after today's work.

Thank you very much.

Please send my best regards to all your colleagues who'll be working these two days in Sochi.