http://www.timeslive.co.za/sport/other/ ... cs-scandalJul 5, 2010 2:11 PM | By Stuart Williams, Sapa-AFPRussian minister in Olympics scandal
Russia’s embattled sports minister came under new pressure to resign on Monday after a report into the Vancouver Olympics found he bought five breakfasts per day in a startlingly lavish stay at the Games.
An activist takes part in a rally, demanding the resignation of Chief of Olympic Committee Leonid Tyagachev and Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, in Moscow. President Dmitry Medvedev ordered Russian Olympic officials to quit or be fired on Monday and demanded drastic changes to training procedures after a poor showing at the Winter Games dented national pride. The placard reads: "Mutko, stand on skis". Photograph by: ALEXANDER NATRUSKIN Credit: REUTERSThe report by Russia’s federal audit chamber said Russia spent a total of 6.2 billion rubles (200 million dollars) on the 2010 Winter Olympics, which reaped a mere three gold medals for the former snow superpower.
But most embarrassing were the revelations over the expenses of Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko, who was lampooned in the press after the Games but kept his job even as a number of top sports officials fell on their swords.
It said that Mutko had stayed at one of Vancouver’s most luxurious hotels, the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, in a “courtyard suite” costing 1,499 Canadian dollars (1,400 US dollars) per night for 20 nights.
Besides this, he also paid for 97 vouchers for breakfast in the course of his stay at a total cost of 4,800 Canadian dollars (4,500 US dollars) — the equivalent of five breakfasts daily.
The report dryly pointed out that the maximum amount recommended by the Russian finance ministry for officials’ accommodation expenses in Canada was 130 US dollars a day.
It said Mutko had been accompanied by his wife Tatyana and as of late May she had still not paid for her ticket.
Mutko told the Interfax news agency that the reports of his expenses were “complete nonsense and nitpicking”.
He also said he was not to blame for the expensive hotel room, saying he had not chosen the room himself but it was allotted to him by the Olympic organisers as the head of the Russian delegation.
But leading financial daily Vedomosti said that the scandal could hasten the minister’s departure.
Mutko’s resignation is now inevitable as well as the opening of criminal probes into the conclusions of the audit report, a source close to the presidential administration told the newspaper.
A member of the sports committee of Russia’s upper house, the Federation Council, Amir Galyamov, said that senators would ask President Dmitry Medvedev to sack the minister.
The Games were a calamity for Russia, used to sweeping the board in several sports in previous Olympics, and raised worries at the highest level about its performance when it hosts the next Winter Games in 2014 in Sochi.
The audit report also complained that outsiders with no apparent sporting significance had been accredited as members of the Russian team.
Pop producer Yana Rudovskaya, the wife of skating superstar Yevgeny Plushenko, was listed as part of the ice skating team, while the daughter of the skating chief at the time was listed as a translator for the snowboarding team.
Meanwhile, it said a visit to Vancouver by Russia’s 2008 Eurovision Song Contest winner Dima Bilan and his musicians to promote the Sochi Games had cost 2.4 million rubles (77,000 dollars), excluding transport costs.
Bilan and his producer — who happens to be Rudovskaya — spent 10 days in Vancouver even though they only worked on three of those, the audit office said.
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http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/38095456/ ... ic_sports/NBCSports.com By DAVID NOWAK Associated Press Writer updated 12:04 p.m. ET July 5, 2010Auditor: Russia wasted millions on Vancouver Games MOSCOW - Russia's flop at the Vancouver Winter Olympics followed widespread misspending by sports officials and a dysfunctional bureaucracy, government auditors said.
The audit puts Russia's total spending for the games, including preparations, at $186 million. It cited dozens of examples of money being wasted, saying the figure ran into millions of dollars.
Russia, a traditional sports powerhouse, won only three gold and 15 total medals in Vancouver, putting the investment cost of each medal at $12.4 million. Russia spent five times less in Turin in 2006, when it won eight golds.
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The daily Vedomosti said Monday the findings would raise pressure on Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko to resign.
According to the audit, Mutko charged 97 breakfasts to the Russian taxpayer during his 20-day stay in Vancouver. Why he would need five breakfasts per day — costing $4,500 in total — went unexplained.
Mutko could not be reached for comment, but has rejected the audit's findings in comments carried by the Russian media.
Russia is hosting the next Winter Olympics in 2014 in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
The Vancouver figure did not include $19 million spent on promoting the Sochi Games, nor $12 million on the Paralympics.
President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the audit after the Vancouver results humiliated the country and cost many top sports officials their jobs.
Some of the spending transgressions uncovered by the 71-page report occurred during the two-week competition in Canada.
In one case, several individuals outside the official Olympic delegation, including Mutko's wife and the
girlfriend 
of figure skater Evgeni Plushenko, traveled to Vancouver on the state's expense.But the Vancouver misspending — which also included $8,000 in parking fees — paled in comparison to the four-year preparation period back home, the report said.
The series of competitions to prepare the athletes for the Olympics during the four-year run-up was "ineffective, incomplete, a year-in-year-out source of income for separate individuals and organizations, of a corrupt nature and on the whole requires comprehensive overhauls," it said.
Graft also permeated the purchase of basic equipment for competition and training, the report said.
In another example, a state-controlled company tasked with acquiring bobsleds, uniforms and other equipment advised the sports ministry of four suitable supply firms, the report said. The ministry replied that four was excessive, and recommended a single firm supply everything.
The order was followed but the single firm outsourced the order to the four firms originally suggested, taking its cut. That violation, in April 2009, cost the state budget $122,000, and the audit cites dozens of other similar cases.
Whole "investigation" can be easily turned against him! 
