Russia on Thursday charged two firms building the central stadium and another high-tech venue for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi with trying to swindle more than $250 million in state funds. The politically damaging case - reportedly part of a much larger probe - emerged just days after a watchdog warned of cost overruns possibly delaying an event billed by Russia as a showcase of its emerging post-Soviet might.
Russia's sport-mad President Vladimir Putin brought the Winter Games to the Black Sea summer resort town against strong odds in 2007 and has since helped funnel more than $20 billion in state and private funds into construction. But the interior ministry said that state-authorised construction firms had been deliberately overstating their cost estimates in contracts so that they could pocket the extra cash. The ministry's statement said unnamed "heads of commercial organisations" had tried to steal more than eight billion rubles ($250 million) in budget money by falsifying their expense accounts and cost estimates.
"Action by the police averted all losses to the federal budget," the interior ministry said, adding that two criminal cases had been brought. Russian media reports said the initial alarm was raised by Olympstroy - a state corporation created in 2007 specifically for the purpose of overseeing the huge Sochi project.
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