Jacques Rogge's address (as translated):

Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great honour and pleasure for the representatives of the International Olympic Committee to attend the inauguration of a new project being undertaken by the Russian Olympic Committee.

Mr Prime Minister, we are very excited and happy that the initiative to establish the Russian International Olympic University is now being realised.

This university will serve many purposes. First of all, it will provide an excellent education for the future leaders of world sport.

We all know well that your country's greatest sporting achievements are based on your coaches' and athletes' wealth of tradition, knowledge, experience and skill.

Your university will be unique in that it will open its doors to students from the whole world, and not just Russia.

Under an agreement with the International Olympic Committee, representatives from 205 national Olympic committees will have an opportunity to receive training at this university.

And so, Russian sports and global sports will come to you! You will receive support for the great ideals and values of the Olympic movement, which this university's programmes will promote. These values are harmony and peace. You will have an opportunity to recreate the atmosphere of the Olympic village at the university.

Representatives from different countries, nations, cultures, ethnicities and religious backgrounds have an opportunity to come together in the Olympic village.

Finally, it is very important that after the Olympics in Russia, in Sochi, the university will benefit Russia and all other countries. Many thanks!

Prime Minister Putin's address:

Mr President, friends from the IOC, ladies and gentlemen,

In 2007 the IOC made a decision to hold the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in the Russian city of Sochi.

We had an ambitious proposal and a great desire to host the Olympic Games, but perhaps that was all Sochi had. Now Olympic venues are springing up right before our eyes. And this does not just apply to Olympic venues: the infrastructure of Sochi and the south of the country is also expanding. I'd like to emphasise once again that the Olympic venues and the related infrastructure account for a mere 20% of the cost for the entire project. We are building roads, an airport, a port, tunnels, flyovers, a natural gas pipeline, a thermal power station, eight substations and sewage and water supply systems. This is a huge effort to develop the south of Russia.

As for the Olympic venues, work is underway at 72 facilities, employing almost 20,000 people and involving 2,500 pieces of machinery. By the end of the year the number of workers will reach 35,000. Importantly, we are working in close contact with both Russian and international environmental organisations.

An alpine ski centre will be completed by the end of the year. Next year we will be able to host one of the stages of the European championship.

It's time to launch another project: we must lay the foundation stone for the future Russian International Olympic University. We are grateful to the International Olympic Committee for supporting this project.

Five hundred students will study at this university, and 150 educators will work here. We cherish our traditions of training athletes, although we are certainly open to everything new, advanced and promising. I have no doubt that the university will raise the level of sports in this country. Its students and educators will serve the noble goal of strengthening sports, mass sport above all, and demonstrate the benefits of a healthy lifestyle to the public. We are pining great hopes on the first graduates from this university, who should be involved in hosting the Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014. I'd like to congratulate everyone for the start of this work. I wish you all success.

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Message to the students of the Russian International Olympic University:

Today, on June 7, 2010, we laid the foundation stone for the Russian International Olympic University. The University is called on to become a modern educational and research centre for sports and an incubator for new ideas and projects.

University graduates are expected to enrich the noble traditions of the Olympic movement, promote its values and ideals and take an active part in organising and hosting the XXII Winter Olympics and XI Paralympics in Sochi, as well as many future Olympic Games.

The establishment of the Olympic University is a sign of the recognition of Russia's sporting achievements and its contribution to strengthening peace, understanding and trust among nations.

Good luck and success to all of us!

Best of luck!

This message was signed by Vladimir Putin and Jacques Rogge.