SOCHI/KRASNAYA POLYANA, September 19 (RIA Novosti) - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin symbolically released two rare leopards from cages to outdoor enclosures in the country's North Caucasus on Saturday to inaugurate a wildlife sanctuary.

The sanctuary in Krasnaya Polyana near the Black Sea resort of Sochi will be Russia's first hub for saving West Asian leopards from extinction. One of major tasks facing the new facility will be to repopulate the Russian Caucasus with leopards within the next 10 to 15 years.

The rare animals are on the Red List of Threatened Species compiled by the IUCN, or the International Union for Conservation of Nature. There are still some West Asian leopards in Iran and in the ex-Soviet states of Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.

The latter country is where the two leopards had been brought from by air. It is planned to catch more leopards for the new center in Turkmenistan and Iran, WWF Russia Sirector Igor Chestin said.

"It's good that the project is actually an international one," Putin said.

Earlier on Saturday, the Russian premier met with senior officials from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and showed them round Olympic facilities being built in Sochi.

The Russian resort city will host the 2014 Winter Olympics. An international investment forum has been running in Sochi since Thursday.

Jean-Claude Killy, who heads the IOC's Coordination Commission for the Sochi Olympics, and Gilbert Filli, the organization's Olympic Games Executive Director, inspected the construction of a motor road leading to Olympic facilities.