As the Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in a ski suit stands on a mountaintop, he stares thoughtfully into the distance. He is surrounded by beaming compatriots and the natural beauty of Krasnaya Polyana – the view of the Caucasus mountain tops swelling from the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

More than once, similar images of Vladimir Putin, a dedicated skier, have appeared in newspapers, magazines and on news sites. Even the current President Medvedev has picked up skiing thanks to Putin, though previously Medvedev’s hobbies were limited to swimming and listening to hard rock.

Putin decided to bring the Olympics to Russia back in 2003, and the country started preparing for its Olympics bid. Most observers believe that Russia won the right to host the games only because of sheer will and power of Putin himself. He personally oversaw the presentation efforts and paid a visit to the International Olympic Committee to pledge the governmental support to the Olympics.

Mere days after celebrating the victory with fireworks and rallies, Russian government along with the country's top businesspeople started a very ambitious construction effort - building the Winter Olympic games facilities in the sub-tropical area. Recently, however, there have been talks of failing construction projects, issues with the land ownership rights, and the diminished budgets due to the effect of the financial crisis. Critics theorize that the latter has hampered the plans of Russian billionaires to support Putin's desire to hold the best Winter Olympics in the history of games. But this is Putin’s personal project, his baby. The honor of the Russian Premier is at stake. This means a lot -- even Putin's critics, who are not likely to overestimate Vladimir Vladimirovich’s actual abilities and resources, agree on that. These same experts believe that among the Russian top businessmen who supported Putin by participating in the Olympic construction, there were many who did so by will rather than coercion. Among them are the metallurgical and media magnate Vladimir Potanin, aluminum king Oleg Deripaska, head of “Gazprom” Alexei Miller, and Elena Baturina, the real estate queen and wife of Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov.

Crisis, which started in Russia late last year, affected the oligarchs' businesses but not their Olympic ambitions. None of the businessmen have officially voiced the slightest doubt that the construction of the Olympic sites will be completed by the deadline, even thought opposition leaders continuously question the Putin government's ability to carry out the project.

In Sochi, some of the heaviest construction is taking place at "Roza Khutor" ski resort, which is built by Vladimir Potanin. The site is most frequently exhibited to the International Olympic Committee delegations. It is also one of the major Olympic sites in Sochi.

Potanin, 48, athletic non-drinker and non-smoker (like Putin), began building the ski resort before Sochi became the host city for the 2014 Winter Olympics. Russian media reported that it was their common infatuation with downhill skiing in the early 2000's that brought together the president and the head of Russia's largest nickel plant. Back in 2003, Putin approved Potanin’s idea of building a modern ski resort which would be visited not only by presidents and tycoons, but also ordinary Russians, who took up mountain skiing en masse in the last few years.

The environmentalists, who have a big say in the Olympic construction effort, have supported the idea of building the resort: the president of the World Wildlife Fund in Russia, Igor Chestin, became the environmental adviser to the project. One of the reasons for that probably was that Potanin has agreed to finance the restoration of the leopard population in the Caucasus mountains where the species has been mercilessly exterminated by the Bolsheviks in the 30s and 40s of the last century.

After six years of planning and construction, “Roza Khutor” evolved from a ski resort to the largest multifunctional complex for the 2014 Olympics.

Until a few months ago “Roza Khutor” was supposed to host competition for ten sets of Olympic medals: downhill, super G, giant and combined slalom. Then, on the eve of 2009, the Putin administration instructed Potanin to prepare the complex for Olympic competition in two more disciplines - snowboarding and freestyle. Potanin will also build an Olympic village for 2,900 sportsmen, which constitutes almost half of all expected athletes; the other Olympic village, built by Oleg Deripaska in the Imeretinsky valley, is designed to accommodate three thousand.

The increased scope of the project makes construction more demanding, both technologically and financially.

“It’s one thing to build on flat terrain and quite another to build in the mountains, without basic utilities or adequate access roads!” says Sergey Trubin, the CEO of “Roza Khutor” as he stands in the snow at the bottom of the resort, leaning on a Russian cross-country vehicle, UAZ. “Ski fans would be delighted to see the snowfall up here in the mountains, but construction workers don't enjoy it as much. In fact, it slows us down quite a lot."

“Now that’s still winter and barely the beginning of spring, we are not actively working on the site,” Trubin continues. “There’ll be snow yet in May and in June. Sometimes, it snows up to six meters up here… That doesn’t mean we sit around waiting for the weather to change. Right now we are busy conditioning the slopes, planning project management activities...”

Some parts of the construction, especially near the foot of the mountains, are completed. The service building of “Mzymta", the lower level base, is 95% completed and will eventually hold a ski school, ticket booths, locker rooms and rental offices. The restaurant on the second floor will offer a magnificent view of the Black Pyramid Mountain.

The lower base also contains the very infrastructure of the resort - parking lots, shops, power stations, a water filtration facility, and the water intake system. From the lower base the skiers will be able to get to the slopes, two kilometers up, in less than 20 minutes. The most exctiting part of the trip will be traveling 146 meters above the Silimovskiy Stream. Eighteen ski lifts total are planned for the resort, both chair-lift and gondola style.

“There is still much more to be done,” Trubin concludes, “but in 2011 we’re planning to open the slopes to the European Cup in Mountain Skiing and to the World Cup in 2012. This spring the FIS delegation will arrive to review and certify the tracks - we will not allow professional skiing before getting certified.”

When the resort opens in the winter of 2009, it will be completely ready and have everything needed - trails, lifts, restaurants and other facilities. Both Vladimir Potanin and the International Olympics committee seem confident that the most important Olympics site will be done on time.

Mountain skiing became a very popular winter sport in Russia, which is rushing to build training facilities for its future champions. Skiing construction projects, even those which don't fall under the Russian government Olympics effort, are also stable amid the financial crisis: Manjerok, an ambitious mountain ski resort in Altai region, near Mongolian border, is still being built according to plan. When built, Manjerok will possibly change the Altai region tourist infrastructure, making it a all-year-long destination and a large training center. Forget Switzerland. A ticket to Sochi or Altai, anyone?