OREANDA-NEWS. February 18, 2009. Russia intends to cut the cost estimate for sports facilities for the 2014 Olympics by 15%. Vice PM Dmitry Kozak told Vladimir Putin that cost cutting is attributable to lower prices for construction materials and revision of project costs which the state commission viewed as overestimated.

“We priced the cost estimate for these facilities by 15% lower into the budget”, Kozak was quoted by the media as saying. “Concerning four sport palaces alone, for which design documents were prepared and expert appraisal was performed, overstatement by RUB 7.5 bn has been identified”, Kozak said. According to him, the cost reduction made it possible to save RUB 300 bn of federal budget resources last year.