MOSCOW, February 14 (RIA Novosti) - The RIA Novosti Olympic Club (RIA OC), the launch of which was announced on Wednesday in Moscow, will be the international multimedia platform providing daily coverage of Russia's preparations for the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

The RIA Olympic Club will gather together leading newsmakers, athletes and volunteers.

“The Olympic Club is a platform where we will endeavor to bring together everything we are doing in the press center for the Olympic Games. At least once a week we will be holding meetings at which we will invite guests at various levels, hold roundtables and much more. So that our audience can be fully prepared and understand what they can expect from the Games," said Maxim Filimonov, RIA Novosti’s First Deputy Editor-in-Chief, at an event held at RIA Novosti. He said that for RIA Novosti "everything connected to the Olympics is an important mission."

"As the national host agency we are planning to do a great deal both for our audience and for journalists who want to receive the most comprehensive information about the upcoming Olympic Games," he added. "So that information about our athletes reaches all this country's readers and listeners." In September 2011 the IOC conferred the status of national host agency and national photo pool on RIA Novosti Group, which includes the sports news agency R-Sport.

RIA Novosti is also planning to launch a series of special projects on the Olympics in the run-up to the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games. A series of photo projects is due to be launched, which will go beyond journalistic products, including an album with the best photographs of athletes and a series of photography exhibitions (six before and one after the Olympics). The third forum for journalists will be held. "We are planning to invite foreign photographers for temporary assignments and to hold the Spartikiada-15 art project which will be accompanied by an exhibition and the publication of a book," Filimonov told journalists at a news conference at RIA Novosti. "We will take part in a charity project to support a children's equal opportunities photography competition in the category "Sports training programs for children with disabilities in the field of sports photography."

© RIA Novosti.

RIA Novosti Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Projects and Products

Weekly events held as part of the Olympic Club will take the following format: news conferences by Russian athletes, officials and star newsmakers; roundtables with the country's leading experts on topical issues; video conferences with guests from other cities and countries; talk shows which will be open to the public; gala evenings, concerts and performances to support the 2014 Games; screenings of films and documentaries; lectures on the Olympic Games and sport; workshops and open classes; press tours, excursions and joint visits to the country of sport; a wide range of online activities, from news and photographs to quizzes and tests.

The launch of the RIA Novosti Olympic Club will help promote sport in the country, believes two-time Olympic ice hockey champion Aleksandr Kozhevnikov. "What matters in everything is information. I think that the opening of the club is more important for other agencies who are not going to Sochi, since the number of people covered will be limited," said Kozhevnikov at the presentation of the RIA Novosti Olympic Club.

The RIA Novosti Olympic Club will also be covering the main events of the general sponsors of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games.

For enquiries about taking part in RIA Novosti Olympic Club events please email: e.manokhina@rian.ru