OREANDA-NEWS. Russian athletes’ preparation for the Sochi Olympics was the subject of discussion.

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PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Friends, colleagues,

I want to present the President of the International Olympic Committee. You already know him well. Allow me on your behalf to wish the International Olympic Committee’s newly elected president success, and to express hope that the IOC will continue to support Russia in preparing for the Olympic Games.

PRESIDENT OF THE INTERNATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE THOMAS BACH (translated from Russian): Thank you very much, Mr President.

Thank you for your hospitality and for this opportunity to meet here with the most important people in Russian sport, especially in winter sports. It is nice to see many familiar faces here and many famous sportspeople, past and present. It shows that Russian sport is flourishing.

The International Olympic Committee is very happy with the preparations for the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, and I am sure that this will be a very interesting and excellent 2014 Winter Olympics. Of course, much of this confidence comes from the personal contribution your president is making to getting ready for the Sochi Olympics, and to the personal attention he has given this project throughout these 7 years. You can be proud of the way your head of state has got involved in preparing for a successful Winter Olympics.

I am very pleased to see many of my Russian friends here and am happy to be able to work together with you. I see many friends here at this table. We expect to be working even more closely together over the 102 days remaining until the start of the Olympics, because practice shows that the final days before the Games are always the busiest.

Once the Olympic flame is alight in the Olympic stadium, everything will depend on you, because the Olympics’ success depends a lot on the success of the host country’s team.

You are very lucky that your president is here now, because you can use this chance and honour to ask him many questions and ask for help and support so that your sportspeople will be 100 percent ready. I wish your athletes and teams good luck and success.

Once again, thank you very much, Mr President. I hope to see you again in Sochi soon and have the chance to personally present gold medals to your athletes. Good luck to you.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Thank you. On my own behalf, and on your behalf, I assured Mr Bach that our sportspeople and fans will do everything possible to ensure that the participants and guests feel at home at the Olympics in Sochi no matter what country they are from and no matter what their ethnic background or sexual orientation. I want to stress this point.

THOMAS BACH: Once more, we want to thank you for your hospitality. We are sure that everyone taking part in the Games will enjoy this same hospitality and your country’s sporting spirit. We have witnessed this over many years now, and I am sure that the Games will be of the highest level.

Thank you for your efforts in organising them.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Thank you.