GENEVA (AP) — Senior IOC member Gian Franco Kasper says his comments about corruption in the financing of the Sochi Olympics are based on a common perception in Russia.
Kasper, the long-time president of the International Ski Federation, tells The Associated Press he stands by comments he made in a Swiss television interview.
The veteran Swiss official told state broadcaster SRF that one-third of the Sochi spending disappeared because of corruption. He said contracts were given to a “construction mafia” of businessmen closely linked to the Kremlin and President Vladimir Putin.
Kasper told the AP on Friday “I didn’t say anything which I wouldn’t have said two years ago.”
