Moscow Declines to Make Bid for 2012 Olympics

The question of whether or not to put Moscow forward as the host of the 2012 summer Olympics was supposed to be discussed at a meeting of the executive board of the Russian Olympic committee yesterday. However, as a Rosbalt correspondent was informed by the Russian state committee on sport, this issue was put off to a later date. As Chairman of the Russian Olympic Committee Leonid Tiagachev explained, this was due to the failure of Russian cities, especially Moscow, to win international approval to host previous large-scale events such as the Expo-2010 international exhibition, the 2008 European football championship as well as the world athletics championship.

Mr Tiagachev said that there must be 'more thorough preparation' before discussing this issue. Moscow still has until June 2003 to make an official bid to host the 2012 summer Olympics. The main rivals are already known. These are Paris, Madrid, Rome, New York, Istanbul and London. The winner will be decided in July 2005 at a meeting of the international Olympic committee in Singapore.