OREANDA-NEWS.  PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA VLADIMIR PUTIN: Mr Ecclestone, it is a pleasure to see you again in Sochi.

I am happy to see our project’s progress. It is excellent that you have found the time to come here and see for yourself how the work is advancing.

A big section of the Formula One racetrack is ready now. As far as I know, of the overall 5.6 kilometres, 3.6 have already had the asphalt laid. True, this is still not the last layer to be laid, but the work is making progress in the right direction, and I think we should be able to hold the first races in October 2014, as we planned.

Much of the roads that will be used for Formula One are actually being built as part of the preparations for the Sochi Olympics, but the federal budget will do its part to ensure the entire project is completed.

It is a pleasure to see you.

PRESIDENT AND CEO OF FORMULA ONE BERNIE ECCLESTONE (retranslated): It is a pleasure to be here.

I want to say how impressed I am by the work you have done and by what you have built. Seeing these results will put a few countries to shame. As far as the Olympic Games go, I will be feeling sorry for my Brazilian friends of course, when they see what you have built here.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Not just Russia’s people, but our guests from abroad will also get use out of these facilities. The Formula One competitions will be a good complement to the rest of the infrastructure and will help us to make use of many of the Olympic facilities that we will inherit from the Games.

BERNIE ECCLESTONE: It is good to see that Russia has obviously already thought about how to make use of the Olympic facilities once the Games are over, because in most countries people build them without knowing what they are going to do with them afterwards.

VLADIMIR PUTIN: Everything here will be put to good use, at least this is certainly my big hope. Right from the start, even before the construction work began, we already planned how we would use the facilities in the future.