05 July 2007, 11:10
Sochi will host 2014 Winter Olympics
The 2014 Winter Olympic Games will take place in the city of Sochi. It was announced in Guatemala at the session of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the "Echo Moskvy" Radio broadcasts.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported earlier that on July 4, Russian Vice-Premier Alexander Zhukov stated that preparation to 2014 Olympics in Sochi will enable to improve the ecology of the region and that the Russian government was planning to spend more than 150 million US dollars on improving the Sochi environment.
However, on the eve of the IOC's final decision on the venue of the 2014 Winter Olympics, representatives of 47 Russian ecological and public organizations sent their appeal to the Chairman of the International Olympic Committee entitled "No to Olympiad Held through Nature Devastation and Violation of Sochi Residents' Rights!"
Meanwhile, Olga Miryasova, representative of the coalition "Against 2014 Olympics in Sochi" and sociologist of the Institute "Collective Action," told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that should Sochi lose the contest for holding the Olympics, ecologists will face more difficulties in counteracting the erection of new objects in the region, because of absence of such information context like the Olympics.