February 4, 2014 -- Updated 1823 GMT (0223 HKT)
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Sochi on Tuesday, state
media reported, as the Black Sea resort city enters the final stages of
preparations for hosting the Winter Olympics. FULL STORY
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The Austrian Olympic team receives a letter, written in German, threatening two female members of the Winter Olympic team.
FULL STORY
Putin arrives in Sochi ahead of Games, Austrians threatened
February 4, 2014 -- Updated 1833 GMT (0233 HKT)
McCaul: Concerned about Sochi Security
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Austrian team receives threatening letter
- NEW: Games in Sochi will are a grand project, Putin says
- Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi three days before the Winter Olympics open
- Organizers are scrambling to get everything ready for the Games
But security concerns
that have cast a shadow in the lead-up to the Games were heightened when
two Austrian competitors received a threat.
Wolfgang Eischer,
spokesman for the Austrian Olympic Committee, told CNN the body received
a letter, written in German, threatening two female members of the
Winter Olympic team. He would not confirm whether the letter was posted
in Russia.
"This anonymous letter
contains a concrete (piece of) information about two persons being in
danger with regard to Sochi, and further details are not public,"
Interior Ministry spokesman Karl-Heinz Grundboeck said.
It was not known who made
the threats, although Islamist militants have warned of attacks to
undermine Putin's hopes of using the Games to show Russia is a safe,
modern state.
The Russian President
arrived in Sochi on a "working visit," according to state news agency
RIA Novosti, with only three days to go before the Games open Friday.
A leopard rehabilitation
center was the first stop on Putin's schedule. The animals at the
center, which opened nearly four years ago, are under the President's
personal protection, state media said. One of them is a 6-month old
leopard kitten called Thunder.
Costs in spotlight
Putin also attended
several events held by the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday,
including the opening of the 126th IOC session, where he met IOC
President Thomas Bach.
Putin called the Games a
grand project, "not just in terms of the external image of the city of
making it more beautiful, more comfortable, but also in terms of the
assistance, the social and economic, cultural and ecological aspects."
Sochi by the numbers
Will Olympic hotels be ready?
History of the Winter Games
Sochi by the numbers
Bach on Monday addressed
criticism of the cost of the Games, saying that huge sums spent on
improving infrastructure should not be wrapped into the total cost,
according to RIA Novosti.
The costs of the Sochi Games "do not exceed previous Olympics," he said.
"To transform a little
bit old-fashioned summer resort into a modern, year-round sport and
tourist destination -- you can see this transformation -- these are not
Olympic costs. This is the transformation of a whole region, and the
Games serve as a catalyst for this kind of development."
Russian Deputy Prime
Minister Dmitry Kozak last year put the total cost at $51 billion, which
would make the Sochi Games the most expensive ever held.
But Russian officials
now put the cost of the Games at $6.4 billion, saying the money spent on
improving transport links, power supplies and sewerage should not be
included in the sum.
Unfinished hotel rooms
Concerns have been
raised that some of the hotels built for the event aren't ready to
welcome journalists and athletes as planned.
But Bach said only 3% of
hotel rooms are unfinished, RIA Novosti reported. Citing the Russian
organizers, the IOC chief said that the people affected would be offered
alternative accommodation and that outstanding issues would be resolved
in time for the Games.
In the seven years since
Russia won its bid to host the 2014 event, authorities have built a
highway, a high-speed train line, electric power stations and an entire
series of resort villages in the Caucasus Mountains, where the alpine
sport events will take place. It has also built tens of thousands of new
hotel rooms.
Security concerns have also dominated the run-up to the Games, with a "ring of steel" imposed around Sochi.
Russian security forces
have cracked down on suspected militants in the restive North Caucasus
republic of Dagestan and elsewhere in recent weeks, after a twin suicide
bombing in the city of Volgograd in December.
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