Rosneft Signs As 2014 Tier One Sponsor

The 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi has signed another top tier sponsor in Russian oil giant Rosneft, which will also be a partner of all Russian Olympic committees and teams.

Worth $180m (£124m), Rosneft will act as the Games’ general partner for oil and oil products.

The partnership comes shortly after China Development Bank agreed to lend $15bn to Rosneft, in return for large supplies of oil for the next 20 years.

The oil company has pledged that it will heavily contribute to the Russian Olympic project and infrastructure development in the region through the construction of more than 150 new petrol stations. It has also claimed to build snowcat and boat re-fuelling facilities in Sochi in an effort to make the resort town a year-round tourist centre.

While the oil mogul has promised to aid in development, critics have called attention to the environmental issues around the construction in Sochi and its partnership with a major oil company, insisting the area can improve economically without this construction.

Sochi 2014’s Tier One partnership with Rosneft follows those with MegaFon and Rostelecom as top sponsors, as the mobile partner and the telecommunication partner respectively.

Coca-Cola, Panasonic and Samsung are already signed up for Sochi 2014 as Worldwide Olympic Partners of the International Olympic Committee.