Opposition campaigner attacks Putin over Sochi costs

By Thomas Grove MOSCOW (Reuters) - A leading opponent of President Vladimir Putin criticised what he said was huge overspending on the Winter Olympics on Monday and accused Russian officials and businessmen of making big profits from the Games. The report, culling information from government budgets and data from companies involved in construction for the Olympics, was the latest by the opposition to pour scorn on a project on which Putin has staked his personal and political prestige. Anti-corruption campaigner Alexei Navalny, who also led protests in Moscow against Putin the winter of 2011-12, said the information challenged Putin's figure for spending on the Games, which open in the Black Sea resort of Sochi on February7. "Russia's overall expenses have already reached $50 billion, which makes the Russian Olympics five times more expensive than the Vancouver (Winter) Olympics (in 2010)," said the report. "Officials and businessmen also took part in the Games and turned them into a source of income." The report said that Putin had helped enrich friends by awarding them contracts to build large-scale Olympic venues at a cost several times above those of similar venues elsewhere. Putin has dismissed suggestions that there has been large-scale corruption surrounding the Games and challenged those who had made allegations to back up their claims. "We don't see any large-scale instances of corruption during our preparations ...in Sochi. If anyone has any information about corruption in Sochi, please hand it over, we will be glad and grateful," Putin said in an interview with ABC, BBC and Russian and Chinese journalists broadcast earlier this month. DIVERGENT COST ESTIMATES Putin's spending total for the Games has diverged from those provided in other estimates, including one of $50 billion from another Russian opposition figure who accused contractors of stealing half the money allocated for the Games. Earlier this month, Putin said Russia had spent some $6.5 billion on preparations for the Games, in sharp contrast with an estimate from Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak who last year said Russia would spend some $50 billion. Navalny's report said more than $12 billion in state funds was divided between two companies Olimpstroy and state monopoly Russian Railroads to build venues and roads. It also said $8.7 billion was spent to build a railroad and motorway, nearly 50 kilometres long, that leads to the Rosa Khutor ski resort, the venue of the Olympic mountain sports. Part of that, said Navalny, went to friends of the president. Russian Railways declined to comment on the report and Olimpstroy was not immediately available for a reaction. Navalny's report, which won little attention in Russia's tightly controlled media, also contradicted government statements that private companies' money had made up for more than half of the investment in Sochi. It said private companies had put less than 4 percent of the overall cost. "In their statements, officials referred to investments of Gazprom, Sberbank, Russian Railways and other government-affiliated entities as private investments," the report said, adding that under international accounting standards such investments would be considered state money. Subcontractors say that corruption has been endemic in the lead up to the Sochi Olympics. Former Deputy Prime Minister Boris Nemtsov released a report last year comparing Sochi's Olympic infrastructure costs with similar venues outside of Russia to claim that half of the budget allocated for construction in Sochi had been stolen. (Reporting by Thomas Grove, Editing by Timothy Heritage and Tom Heneghan)