The Prime Minister met with his guests on the observation platform over the Akhtsu Gorge on the road to Krasnaya Polyana. Then Mr Putin invited them to take a ride with him in the Niva he had recently bought at the AvtoVAZ plant and the motorcade headed towards the Sochi National Park near Krasnaya Polyana.

There, Mr Putin let two leopards delivered by air from Turkmenistan out of a cage into a larger open-air cage. This symbolic act meant the effective end of construction of Russia's first specialised centre for breeding and rehabilitation of such animals for their subsequent release into the wild.

Igor Chestin, director of the Russian chapter of the World Wildlife Fund, told Mr Putin that the centre had been established within a programme approved by the Russian Government a year earlier to preserve the environment in the vicinity of construction of the Olympic centre. The programme calls for northern population nucleus of the leopards to be created within 10-15 years. These leopards were wiped out in the Caucasus in the early 20th century.

Mr Putin said that "IOC representatives consider it a good sign that within the framework of building Olympic facilities, we are taking care of the re-population of wildlife."

"It's good that this is an international project," emphasised Mr Putin. Near the open-air cage, the Prime Minister talked by telephone with President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymuhammedov and thanked him for a "very beautiful gift".

"The representatives of the Olympic Committee and I are looking at these wonderful animals at this very moment," said Mr. Putin. "Your gift is splendid. Thank you ever so much."

Jean-Claude Killy, who was standing near the Prime Minister, said that he and his colleague Gilbert Felli had observed the construction of the Olympic facilities for several days, and were glad to know that Russia was taking "exceptional care of wildlife."

"This animal, in our opinion, is one of the most beautiful in the world," said Mr Killy. "We are very glad that the Olympic movement plays a major role not only in the development of sports and health; we are touched by such influence of the Olympic movement on nature. This will become a new symbol of the Olympic movement - the campaign for human health and protection of wildlife."

Mr Putin said that construction of Olympic facilities was going according to schedule. At present, 11,000 personnel and 10,000 units of equipment are engaged in the work. In two years, 75,000 personnel will be working in the full-cycle construction.

Regarding this subject, Mr Killy noted, "We have observed the process of construction of the facilities with great interest. And I will no longer tell Vladimir Putin that we need to hurry. You are fully keeping all promises and are even doing more, taking into account today's procedure with the leopards."

Journalists asked Mr Putin what he thought of Mr Killy's comments on what he observed as being a new symbol of the Olympic movement. Mr Putin answered that it would be good if the leopard really did become "our national Olympic symbol and a symbol of the revitalisation of wildlife, but the final decision rests with the public - we will ask them."

In response to a humorous question from a journalist as to what the Prime Minister told the leopards, which were behaving uncharacteristically placid for such animals, Mr Putin replied, "We understood each other."

The Prime Minister told the journalists that one of the leopards was named Alous, which is the name of the mountain where the last leopard near Sochi's Black Sea coast was killed. The other leopard was named General, after General Gorge in Turkmenistan.