Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin made his pitch to visiting Olympics officials on Wednesday to choose Moscow as host of the 2012 Games, arguing that Russia has drastically changed since hosting the 1980 Olympics, but is still a world sports power.
In a meeting with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) evaluation team examining Moscow’s bid to host the games, Putin recalled the Olympics that Moscow was chosen to host 25 years ago but that many Western countries refused to attend in protest at the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.
”We know the political and international situation in which the Olympics were held then,” Putin, flanked by powerful Moscow mayor Yury Luzhkov, told the visiting delegation during talks in an ornate Kremlin hall.
”Thank God that time has passed now. The world has changed; Russia has changed. But one thing that hasn’t changed is the Russian people’s interest in sports,” Putin said. He greeted the IOC committee by reminding them that ”Russia is one of the great athletic powers in the world”.
The 13-member IOC evaluation committee arrived on Sunday in Moscow, the last of five candidate cities competing to be awarded the 2012 summer Games, and has spent the week touring existing and proposed Olympic venues and hearing presentations on various aspects of the Russian capital’s plan.
Putin said that even though the 1980 Games were marred by the Cold War dispute between Moscow and the West, they nonetheless demonstrated the city’s capacity to organise and host high-calibre international sporting events.
Since hosting those ill-fated Games, Moscow has been the site of more than 100 European and world championships in a wide range of athletic disciplines, already has a third of the facilities in place for the 2012 Games and will build another 300 sports facilities by 2010, whether it wins the bid for the Games or not, Putin said.
But it was the political and historical message that underpinned the Russian president’s pitch to the IOC team as he evoked the country’s democratic transformation since the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union and stressed that today ”Russia fully shares the humanistic value” of the Games.
”This is especially true of modern Russia,” he said, adding that the selection of Moscow as host of the 2012 Games ”would be conducive to developing and enhancing these beliefs”.
At a meeting that followed a spectacular horseback parade at Sobornaya square in the very heart of Moscow’s ancient Kremlin, IOC panel head Nawal El Moutawakel praised Luzhkov for Moscow’s reception.
”On behalf of the IOC evaluation commission, I’d like to thank Yury [Luzhkov] for the warm and sincere reception in the Russian capital,” the 1984 Olympic champion in women’s 400m hurdles said.
”We met Russian President Putin and he showed us support of the idea of staging the 2012 Games in Moscow,” she said. ”We spent a few days here in Moscow and we’ve got a feeling that the public support is very strong also.
”We have met here a great team, very professional, very talented, who answered all our questions and showed us all the prospects of the Olympic movement here.
”We’ve got a feeling that the Russian Federation is a nation which loves sports and if you get the Games you will be happy,” she added. — Sapa-AFP