Sochi Airport

Climate change should be taken into account in the country’s preparations for 2014 Winter Olympic Games in the southern Russian city of Sochi, according to the Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

“We should take it [climate change] into account when preparing for the Olympics, and other international competitions,” Medvedev said. “I think we will have to make changes due to the climate and spend additional funds, including for the Winter Olympics,” Medvedev said.

A meeting about preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi was headed by  Medvedev on Friday.

The meeting of the organizing committee for the Games was held at the Luzhniki sports arena in south west Moscow as part of the Russia is a Sports Power forum, which coincides with celebrations for the 30th anniversary of the 1980 Moscow Olympics.

The 2014 Olympics in Sochi is expected to cost around 185 billion rubles ($6.1 billion), 80 billion of which will come from government funds, and the rest from investors, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak said earlier.

“Life is full of surprises; at the moment there are fires all over the country, in almost 14 territories,” Medvedev said.

Over 900 homes have been destroyed, at least 14 have died and 34 have been injured over the past 24 hours in the largest wildfire ever to hit the European part of Russia.

Temperatures across much of western and central Russia have topped 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) for the past five weeks, causing peat bog and forest fires and creating what is thought to be the worst drought since 1972.