ZAVIDOVO (Tver Region), July 9 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin said Monday he plans to set up a security working group with the participation of the Prosecutor General's Office for the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi.
Besides providing security measures at the Olympics, the group will also look at ways to prevent any misappropriation of funds allocated for the Winter Games.
Last week, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) chose Sochi, a Russian resort city on the Black Sea, to host the 2014 Winter Olympic Games. Sochi won in a close race with South Korea's Pyeongchang and Austria's Salzburg.
Putin, who attended Sochi's Olympic presentation at IOC session last week in Guatemala, said "I intend to turn to the Prosecutor General's Office with a proposal to form a working group, which will provide security in the future and coordinate construction of the necessary facilities so that the allocated finances will be spent rationally and any misappropriation of state funds will be prevented at all cost."
Russia intends to spend $12 billion on the Olympics in Sochi, with half of the sum from the budget and another half from private investments.
"It means that the money we have planned to spend, including within the framework of the three-year budget, should be used rationally," Putin said.
The president added that two-thirds of the money from the budget would be used on the development of infrastructure in Russia's south.
"That includes the construction of roads, bridges, tunnels, communication, water supply, electricity - everything that makes for a decent life for people," he said.
