Rostelekom and Megafon became the first general sponsors of the Olympic Games in Sochi. The total deal is worth $260 million. Moreover, both companies are planning to invest an additional $200 million or more into the development of the city and regional infrastructure.

The signing of the agreements was followed by the briefings of Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, Mr Jean-Claude Killi, and Head of the Sochi-2014 Organising Committee Dmitry Chernyshenko for Russian and foreign journalists.

Mr Killi expressed his content with the preparations for the Sochi Olympics: "We have spent two hard but fruitful days working, and our experts note that all inspections were very open. Although there are still five years to go, assessment of the work is very positive."

Mr Kozak reported that preparations for the Olympics are fully on schedule and are financed on a full scale. "In a week, it will be exactly five years before the start of the Games, and in spring we will launch the most active stage of construction," he recalled.
As of today, building organisations have sent 48 applications, including 12 foreign companies from Austria, Bulgaria, Turkey, Finland, and Sweden. "Envelopes on the results of the tenders will be opened on February 17," he said.

Mr Kozak does not see any difficulties with the withdrawal of land for the construction of Olympic facilities in Sochi: "All lands owned by Sochi-based state companies and organisations required for building Olympic facilities have already been withdrawn and documented, while papers on private plots are still being processed," he said.

Mr Kozak said that state-owned plots form an overwhelming majority of the lands earmarked for Olympic facilities. As for private lands, it has been decided to withdraw two plots required for the construction of two railway cargo warehouse depots.

"On other lands, we have amended the law by granting land owners the right to choose to receive new housing, a new plot of land, or monetary compensation in exchange for the withdrawn plots," Mr Kozak said. He added that they are planning to finish most of this work by late March.

Mr Chernyshenko said that the Olympic budget stands at $1.8 billion. Revenues from the implementation of marketing programmes should amount to 75% of this sum. The Olympic budget is also planning to attract about two billion dollars from sponsors.

Mr Kozak explained that the Olympic budget is being formed with due account of different trends in the economy: "The economic processes and the rouble exchange rate are bound to influence construction costs. A number of contradictory trends are at work now: a change in the rouble exchange rate, on the one hand, and lower construction material costs and higher competition for government construction contracts on the other, due to the difficulties faced by construction companies. We are trying to take all these factors into account and predict their development through 2014 in order to form the budget as precisely as possible."