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The International Olympic Committee yesterday arrived in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to inspect preparations for Russia's 2014 Winter Olympics amid renewed claims of environmental violations.

Inspectors from the IOC will tour Olympic sites today and Thursday and assess progress. They will also meet senior figures from Russia's government.

But the trip comes amid fresh allegations by environmental groups that Gazprom and other contractors building facilities in Sochi have flouted environmental regulations. Russia has pledged the Games will meet strict ecological standards.

Yesterday one group said it had uncovered serious violations in Krasnaya Polyana, the ski resort that will host many events. Gazprom, Russia's largest company, is building a mountain resort centre inside Sochi's national park and next to a Unesco-protected nature reserve. According to the group Environmental Watch, Gazprom has built a "massive" four-storey garage without permission adjacent to the local Achipse river and constructed an illegal road, excavated gravel from the river bed and chopped down hundreds of trees.

"Activists found a large stockpile of wood in the river valley. The wood came from massive logging on the future ski slopes and lifts for Gazprom's complex," the group said. "The company's destructive development activities on protected natural territory cannot but alarm the international community," it said.

Gazprom could not be contacted last night. But a spokesman for Sochi's 2014 Olympic organising committee said the "environment would be a key issue" for the visiting IOC delegation.

Yesterday Dmitry Kapsov, a Sochi-based ecologist, said construction work in buffer zones adjacent to the national park was ruining the area. "The Olympics pose a threat to the integrity and biodiversity of the whole region. The environmental problems are extremely serious and it's wrong to suggest they have gone away."

Russia claims construction work is on schedule despite the fact that several oligarchs backing the project have run out of cash. Dmitry Chernyshenko, president and CEO of Sochi 2014, said: "I am honoured to welcome the IOC coordination commission to my home city and look forward to showing them the excellent progress the organising committee has made since their first official visit. Not a day has been lost in our preparations and we have much to update them on."

(Source: Guardian.co.uk)