While speaking at the ceremony, the President referred to the construction of the Krasnaya Polyana ski resort as the first step designed to prepare Sochi for the 2014 Winter Olympics. The head of state expressed his confidence that Sochi's Krasnaya Polyana will act as a real competitor to foreign sports centres.
Gazprom Chairman of the Board Aleksei Miller and Olympic athlete Svetlana Gladysehva accompanied Vladimir Putin as he toured the ski resort.
At the upper station of the new ski resort, the President talked with students from children's and young people's sporting schools. To symbolically open the complex the head of state and the young athletes cut the ribbon which was holding back thousands of colourful balloons.
The Krasnaya Polyana ski resort was built with funds from Gazprom. Construction began in 2002. Land allocated for construction was given by the Sochi administration in the Achipse river valley and in the Sochi national park at the top of the Psekhako ridge.