Sochi officials said the new deal was worth $115 million, Reuters reports. Russian Railways joins eight other Tier One partners at Sochi, including Rostelecom, Megafon, Rosneft Sberbank, Aeroflot, Volkswagen and Bosco Sport.
The deal is all the more important for Sochi after the Russian government last year announced it was slashing by $600 million the government budget for the event, due to the economic crisis.
The Sochi Games chief Dmitry Chernyshenko said the Russian domestic sponsor deals were not part of a back-door route to government funding. "Absolutely not," he said. “I expect that we will probably not use public funds or government money, we will stay with the partnership investment only.”
Chernyshenko was speaking at the closing ceremony of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, which Sochi officials had attended as part of their preparation for their own event, and to play their part in the handover section of the Vancouver closing ceremony.
International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, praised Sochi's attendance at Vancouver.
“Tonight the organizers of the next Winter Games have given the world a taste of modern Russia, through a spectacular Handover Ceremony,” he said. “Congratulations to Sochi 2014 for their efforts, which contributed to the excellent Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony.”
