Dmitry Kozak has met with journalists after a meeting on preparations for trial competitions at Olympic venues in Sochi.

Question: Mr Kozak, what was the outcome of the meeting? Were any directives issued? After all, the Prime Minister stressed that some construction projects are running behind schedule...

Dmitry Kozak: Well, all of the directives... There are many, and describing all of them in brief to answer your question would be impossible. Yes, the project is huge and multi-dimensional – with many elements... At this stage, the project requires the participation of many governments, the co-ordinated work of each body, and the involvement of every leader – the federal ministers, the regional leaders, and the organising committee and corporation (Olympstroy) heads. All of the necessary decisions regarding the most problematic issues were made at the meeting. I hope that we will perform well during the trial competitions in the event that these directives are fulfilled and that we will be able to thoroughly prepare for the Olympics, which will be more time-focused than these competitions. This will require even greater effort. So, we must undergo a lot of training... I think that we will be able to hold everything in the most organised manner.

Question: Are you really treating the trial competitions as if they were a separate Olympics?

Dmitry Kozak: Yes, I think that these are very comparable things that just happen to take place at two different times. We without question must test our human resources – and not just tangible objects such as our Olympic sports facilities, and so on. It is also important to comprehensively test all of the technical systems in test mode, and also people in action to see how they react to different and abnormal situations, and so on. This is extremely important. We already have the relevant experience. We have discussed the road maintenance plan here, among other things.

Last year, our trial competitions showed us that we need other management bodies and another decision-making system, as well as new principles of interaction between the various owners of roads... Here in the mountain cluster, there are nine of them. All of the necessary decisions have been made. It is working now. The road maintenance quality in the extreme snowfall is much better today. The first snowfall has arrived. And I see that everything is working regardless and all of the necessary decisions are being made.

Question: Mr Kozak, tell me, what are the major dates for this year? When will the preliminary results be available? And which dates do you consider to be the most important?

Dmitry Kozak: Major competitions and training sessions for management bodies will take place in February, and most competitions will be held from 27 January until the end of February. This is the same period as when the Olympics will be held, so we hope the weather conditions will be the same. We will test everything by late February and draw conclusions as to how the system is working.

Thank you.