Medvedev: The government has no data on corruption in Sochi

The Russian government has no data on the facts of large -scale theft in preparation for the Sochi Olympics. Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said this in an interview with CNN. According to him, it is possible to talk about large -scale corruption in Sochi "only guided by legal criteria, and not leisure reasoning or emotions."

Answering the question whether he was worried about that some of the funds spent at the Olympics “went to someone’s pocket”, Medvedev noted that “if it is proved that someone stole something or is corruption somewhere, then we can talk about the scale of corruption.”

"Now we don’t have such data. There is simply no data that there are some prohibitive corruption figures in relation to the general situation in the country. Yes, this does not happen. I, I openly told you, is not an ideal situation with this issue, but this does not mean that the situation is some other in Sochi, therefore, when some of our colleagues comment on, it would still be guided by legal criteria, and not pre-provisions, and not prejudice. Reasoning or emotions, ”the prime minister added.

In the framework of the preparation of the Olympiad in Sochi, the Russian authorities spent about $ 50 billion on the development of the region, including 6.4 billion directly to hold the games, Medvedev said.

"The first figure ($ 6.4 billion) is the Olympiad itself, and the second (50 billion) is the figure of development of the region, because, solving the Olympic problem, we, of course, were engaged in the development of the region itself," the prime minister said. At the same time, he emphasized that the figure spent on the development of the region is “reasonable”.

According to the prime minister, thanks to the investments, it was possible to create about 500 thousand jobs and almost to zero to reduce unemployment in the area of ​​the Krasnodar Territory. In addition, an infrastructure was created, which had never existed there before.

Last weekend that there were no large -scale manifestations of corruption in the preparation for the Olympics in Sochi, in an interview, President Vladimir Putin stated by several television channels. According to him, there were cases of overstating the volume of construction of facilities, including due to poor-quality examination and dishonesty of contractors.

On January 9, the President of the International Sports Federation (FIS) and a member of the IOC Jean-Franco Kasper said in an interview that about a third of the money spent on the preparation of the 2014 Olympics was stolen . Condening to the facts of corruption, Casper emphasized that in Russia it is an everyday phenomenon. According to President FIS, there will be about 50 thousand police officers and soldiers to protect the Olympics in Sochi. According to him, in the region, it is probably not the most high spirits that reigns.

Casper considers the upcoming games the project of President Vladimir Putin, undertaken for the sake of prestige. The President of FIS called PR the liberation of Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Pussy Riot participants, as well as the termination of the criminal case against Greenpeace activists.

In turn, the head of Russian Railways Vladimir Yakunin accused Kasper of slander . “How can one relate to the fact that the official representative of Switzerland claims that a third of the money during the construction of the Olympiad was stolen? Did he participate in this theft? Then he must be judged. If he received some materials that are true, then put on the table. And otherwise you are a slander, you must judge by the law,” Yakunin said.

In June, Boris Nemtsov presented the report "Winter Olympics in the Subtropics" , written by him together with Leonid Martynyuk. The Olympics in Sochi became the largest scam in Russian history, the authors say. According to official figures, the budget of the Olympiad broke all world records and amounts to more than 50 billion dollars.

This is the most expensive Olympiad in the history of mankind, the report is noted. The expenses for it were more costs for sports facilities of all winter Olympiads combined. "A comparison of the costs of the Olympic objects in Sochi and in other Olympic capitals shows that Putin prices are two or more times higher than the average ID," the authors of the report write. According to their estimates, the total extent in the project is about 50-60 percent of the budget.