Vladimir Putin’s speech at the ceremony:

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen,

Today we are starting up a new gas transport system, the Dzhubga-Lazarevskoye-Sochi pipeline. This project has great importance, not just for the Olympic facilities, but for the broader Sochi area too, for southern Russia as a whole, for all coastal areas. It is 170 kilometres long! And most of it – 90% – runs along the seabed. We chose this route expressly to minimise, to cut its impact on the coastal ecosystem to zero. This enabled us to preserve old-growth forests and keep this natural environment, which is such a source of pride to us, and which the millions of people who live in Russia love, pristine and untouched.

On reaching Sochi this pipeline connects to a new thermal power plant which should come online, and will come online next year. It will produce several times the region’s current power consumption, stabilizing local heat and power supplies. What does this mean for ordinary people? First, it means that around 250,000 people – a quarter of a million – in Tuapse, Lazarevskoye and Sochi itself will have their homes connected to the gas supply system. This will remove a lot of infrastructure and power supply limitations on housing construction for people living here. It means that more jobs can be created as more construction projects break ground, including for new hotels, spas and resorts, and that in turn means new jobs for the people. All this indicates that people’s lives will gradually improve.

Our goal, and I am confident that there will be very many more similar projects, because development is on the rise right across Russia, our goal is to make these improvements irreversible and grant them the forward momentum they need.

I would like to thank you all for the work that you have done and to wish you every success in the future. Thank you very much.

Alexei Miller (Chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee): Mr Putin, we have the control centre for the Dzhubga-Lazarevskoye-Sochi gas pipeline live on the line. Control centre, please report on the pipeline’s readiness to commence operation.

Operator: Mr Putin, Mr Miller, pressure in the pipeline has stabilised at 55 atmospheres. All systems are functional. The pipeline is ready for operation.

Alexei Miller: Mr Putin, now you can give the order to start-up this pipeline and ignite the control flare.

Vladimir Putin: Begin!

Operator: Pressing. The safety valve is open. The pressure reduction spool has been activated. Gas for flaring is flowing. The gas pipeline is operational.

Vladimir Putin: Congratulations!

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Before commissioning the Dzhubga-Lazarevskoye-Sochi gas pipeline, Vladimir Putin visited an exhibition devoted to its construction

Alexei Miller, Chairman of Gazprom’s Management Committee, reported that the new pipeline will pump 3.78 billion cubic metres of gas, to which the prime minister remarked: “That’s a sizeable volume. Some of our European partners pump three billion cubic metres at a time, but this is even more.”

Mr Miller emphasised that this gas will be used to supply customers in Russia, primarily in Sochi. “We will fully cover the peak loads in this region,” he said, adding that the gas pipeline was fully designed by Russian specialists, and the pipe is of Russian make.

Mr Putin said that the construction of the pipeline had proceeded at a good pace – it started in September 2009 and was completed in a year and a half. Mr Miller added that its commissioning will make it possible to shut down all the coal power plants in the region. The pipeline was laid so as not to infringe upon any environmental contracts and not to damage the coastline.