Kremlin hopes for speedy arrival in Sochi of participants in athletic conference
MOSCOW. Nov 11 (Interfax) - A conference on aspects of preparations for the 2016 Olympiad in Rio di Janeiro will be held in Sochi after all; the Kremlin expects that the participants will report their coordinated opinion on all matters to the president.
"We hope that in around 40 minutes the plane with the participants in the sports conference will land in Sochi, and we hope that after nine in the evening the conference will start after all," presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said to journalists.
"We know that the participants did not waste their time while they were waiting in Mineralnye Vody, that they succeeded in discussing all the issues related to preparations for the Olympic Games between themselves, therefore we hope that they will express quite constructively their coordinated opinion of issues of preparations for the Olympiad to the head of state," he added.
Earlier reports said that participants in a planned conference dealing with preparations for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin could not reach Sochi due to poor weather, but they are holding a conference in Mineralnye Vody so as to report to the president on the situation surrounding the doping scandal.
"The participants in the sports event are not wasting time. As it has become known, [Russian National Olympic Committee chief Alexander] Zhukov started holding a conference on preparations, including a discussion of the doping cases, so as, if they can fly here within 24 hours, to substantively report to Putin on the situation," Peskov told journalists earlier.
Because of a cyclone, the plane carrying the conference participants had to land in Mineralnye Vody. It was raining heavily in Sochi.