Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday is to put one of his most trusted troubleshooters in charge of preparations to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, a project that could be hit by the global financial crisis.
Medvedev will soon sign a document promoting Dmitry Kozak, who until now has been minister for regional development, to the post of deputy prime minister overseeing the Games, the Kremlin press service said.
Kozak, 49, graduated from the same university as Medvedev and the two men have been close associates for years. Kozak’s previous jobs included that of the Kremlin envoy in the turbulent North Caucasus region.
Kozak warned last week that the global crisis might affect Moscow’s preparations to host the Olympics, which are to take place in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Russia has pledged to spend $12 billion on developing Sochi for the Games, of which $7 million will be public funding and the rest from private sources. Much of the infrastructure for the Olympics will have to be built from scratch.
Real estate developers and construction firms are among the most heavily leveraged companies in the Russian economy and have been among those hit hardest by the credit crisis, which is choking off their ability to finance large projects.
Earlier this year, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee’s Coordination Committee, Jean-Claude Killy, said preparations for the Sochi Games would probably be the most challenging ever.
Winning the right to host the Olympics — the first in Russia since the boycott-hit 1980 Moscow Games — was presented by the Kremlin as international recognition of the country’s resurgence.
Viktor Basargin, the Kremlin envoy in the Urals, will take Kozak’s job of regional development minister, news agencies quoted Medvedev as saying.
from: reuters – guardian.co.uk
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