Ski jump boss SACKED over Russia’s winter Olympics delays: Putin axes engineer who let costs soar from $40m to almost $300MILLION
Worldwide, Daily news | ankakh | February 8, 2013 22:24
Russian President Vladimir Putin has fired a top Russian Olympic official after publicly ridiculing him on a visit to the winter Olympics site.
In an attempt to stamp his authority on the event he sacked Akhmed Bilalov, 42, vice-president of Russia’s Olympic committee, after becoming annoyed that the ski-jump was not on schedule.
The current price tag for the Sochi Games is 1.5 trillion rubles ($51 billion), which would make them the most expensive games in the history of the Olympics – more costly even than the much-larger Summer Olympics held inLondonandBeijing.
The games at the Black Sea resort ofSochiare considered a matter of national pride and one of Putin’s top priorities.
Putin’s decision came after he scolded officials over a two-year delay and huge cost overruns in the construction of theSochiski jump facilities.
The Russian official involved, Akmet Bilalov, had a company that was building the ski jump and its adjacent facilities before selling its stake to state-owned Sberbank last year.
During his tour of Olympic venues, Putin fumed when he heard that the cost of the ski jump had soared from 1.2 billion rubles ($40 million) to 8 billion rubles ($265 million) and the project was behind schedule.
The Russian Olympic Committee was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that Bilalov’s future can only be decided by a session of its executive committee.
Despite these setbacks, Russian officials went to great lengths to reiterate that everything inSochiwas now on schedule.
The countdown celebrations were to culminate later Thursday in a star-studded ice show at one of the Olympic arenas, attended by Putin and IOC President Jacques Rogge.
Also Thursday, tickets for the games went on sale online inRussia.
The prices range from a low of 500 rubles ($17) to a high of 50,000 rubles ($1,700). Organizers said about 40 percent of the tickets would be priced under 3,000 rubles ($100).
The total number of tickets put on sale was not disclosed.
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