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Russia's Gazprom, not Belarus co., to build Sochi biathlon facility

© RIA Novosti . Alexey Kudenko / Go to the mediabankGazprom
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Russian energy giant Gazprom, not a Belarusian company, will build a biathlon facility in the southern Russian resort of Sochi, due to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, the government said on its website Saturday.

Russian energy giant Gazprom, not a Belarusian company, will build a biathlon facility in the southern Russian resort of Sochi, due to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, the government said on its website Saturday.

Belarusian diversified consumer services group Triple backtracked last week on its plans to invest 257 million rubles (some $8.7 million) in a 20,000-capacity biathlon complex in the Russian Black Sea resort city.

The Russian government said it had removed Triple's biathlon complex from the list of Olympic facilities to be built.

Instead, Gazprom which was initially responsible for the construction of a cross-country skiing facility will now have to combine it with a biathlon complex.

The government said in a resolution the integrated complex would be designed for an audience of 16,000.

Relations between Moscow and Minsk have been soured by a series economic and political disputes, including Russian energy supplies, last year's milk export row and Belarus' reluctance to sign a deal to set up a post-Soviet rapid reaction force.

Last March's commitment by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko to build one of the Olympic sites in Sochi has been widely seen as a gesture by Minsk to heal growing rifts between the two ex-Soviet states as they seek to build a "union state."

The Russian government announced last September that more than 1 trillion rubles ($34.1 billion) would be spent between 2009 and 2012 on preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics.

MOSCOW, January 23 (RIA Novosti)

 

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