UN experts: Olympic preparations in Sochi damage environment irreparably

Experts of the United Nations have published a special report summing up the January inspection held by the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) mission and accusing Russian officials of protracting with their decision-making on mitigating negative effects of Olympic preparations on the ecology.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the UNEP mission visited Sochi in January 28-30.

In the report, which should be officially published on March 16, the UNEP experts assert that Russian authorities had ignored, when building certain Olympic objects, the ecologists' demands and kept their eyes shut "to the aggregate effect, which the project will render on the ecological systems of the Sochi region and its residents," the BBC reports.

The document gives ecologists' comments who assert that the damage already caused to the ecology by construction is irreparable: traditional animals' habitats have been destroyed, including bears and birds. It is emphasized that the Mzymta River is especially endangered, since a highway and a railway to the Games' objects will run along it. Thousands of beeches have already been cut on its banks.

In the opinion of ecologists, Russian authorities are too slow with making decisions capable to compensate - at least partially - the damage caused to the nature. In particular, the report mentions the promised expansion of the Sochi National Park and creation of protected forests along the Black Sea coast, where migrating birds could winter. "The check has shown that decisions at the political level are too procrastinated," the UN experts say.

However, the report does not state directly any particular violations in the sphere of ecology in the construction sites.

On March 15, a copy of the UNEP report was sent to the Russian government. Dmitri Peskov, Vladimir Putin's press secretary, has refused to make any comments on the document saying that he has not seen it yet, the "GZT.ru" reports.