MOSCOW, September 29 (RIA Novosti) - Russia is to allocate 228 billion rubles ($7.6 bln) from the state budget in 2010 for the construction of sports facilities for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, a deputy finance minister said on Tuesday.
"The money is mainly intended for the construction of roads, sports facilities and to relocate people," Alexander Novak said.
However, he declined to comment on earlier media reports that the Olympics were expected to cost over one trillion rubles.
Russian business daily Vedomosti reported earlier citing data from the Ministry of Regional Development that 1.054 trillion rubles is to be spent between 2009 and 2012 on a government program for the construction of Olympic facilities, with 699.3 billion rubles allocated from the federal budget.
Novak said that the volume of financing for 2011 and 2012 had not been determined yet.
Sochi won the right to host the Olympics at an IOC session in Guatemala in July 2007 after a close race with South Korea's Pyeongchang and Austria's Salzburg.
Russia has never hosted the Winter Olympics and Moscow's hosting of the Summer Games in 1980 was marred by a U.S.-led boycott involving more than 60 countries.
Several western countries called on the IOC last year to deprive Russia of its right to host the Games in 2014 after the country fought a five-day war with Georgia last August. The IOC dismissed the calls.
