
President Vladimir Putin with a closed decree awarded businessmen and heads of state -owned companies with orders for the preparation of the Olympiad in Sochi, the Vedomosti reports.
According to the publication, the award took place at the end of March. Among the awarded is the owner of Interros Vladimir Potanin, President of Sberbank German Gref, Gazprom’s reproduction Alexei Miller, Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Renova group Victor Vekselberg and the chairman of the supervisory board of Bazel Oleg Deripaska, as well as their subordinates.
On the same day, Putin awarded the preparations for the Olympics of several officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, the head of the Sochi Organizing Committee Dmitry Chernyshenko, chairman of the Olympic Committee Alexander Zhukov and Minister of Sports Vitaly Mutko. The Kremlin press service reported this, but the decree on the award was never published. Investors were awarded after the awarding of sports functionaries without the presence of journalists.
Most of the awarded were received by the Order of Alexander Nevsky, established by Catherine I. The rest - the Order "For Merit to the Fatherland" III and IV degrees, as well as the Order of Honor.
Potanin’s structures built in Sochi a ski resort "Rosa Khutor" and the International Olympic University. Sberbank became a control shareholder of Krasnaya Polyana OJSC, which was engaged in the construction of a springboard and a mountain mediaerevni. Gazprom built an Adler CHP and a combined ski -biathlon complex, Russian Railways - a combined (car and iron) road from Adler to Krasnaya Polyana. The structures of Vekselberg erected a hotel complex with 3600 rooms. Deripaski - a cargo port, a coastal Olympic village, an understudy of the Kurortny Prospekt.
Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused to comment on the issue of why the president and his administration decided to award the distinguished non-publicly. It is known that among the awarded there were also security forces. Perhaps they decided not to publish the decree because of this.
Recently, this is not the first time that the president gives a reward secretly. On April 20, he signed a decree on the awarding of businessmen for a great contribution to the socio-economic development of Russia. The Order of Merit to the Fatherland "II and IV degrees was received by the President of" Lukoila "Vagit Alekperov and the President of Sinara Dmitry Pumpyansky, respectively, and the general director of" Industrial Investors "Sergey Generalov was awarded the medal of the Order for Merit to the Fatherland" II degree.
On April 22, Putin awarded about 300 journalists mainly state media for the "objective" coverage of events in the Crimea.