Russian minister slams "horrible" 2014 sites

Russia's Minister for Natural Resources Yuri Trutnev on Friday deplored the "horrible" state of the works under way in Sochi, the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

"Our sites look horrible. I will show the photographs to the prime minister Vladimir Putin. There's no hiding from it, we have to do something," he said, according to the Riva Novosti press agency.

He added that the International Olympic Committee IOC would "point its finger at these projects" and say "that Russia is incapable of building ecologically friendly sites as promised".

Trutnev denied, however, that there was any "immediate risk" to the environment.

Olimpstroia, the organisation responsible for the works, said the construction programme was being "respected", according to a spokesperson cited by Ria Novosti.

Putin stated in January that the global economic crisis would not jeopardise preparations for the games and that the major infrastructures would be in place by 2012.

Sochi, which sits on the coast of the Black Sea, was chosen as host of the 2014 Winter Olympics in July 2007.









Children play on top of rocky desert cliffs at sunset. AP Photo/Hasan Jamali