Sochi Olympic chief assails environmentalists

MOSCOW(AP) A Russian Cabinet official in charge of preparations for the 2014 Winter Olympics says the country's environmentalists are harming preparations for the Sochi Games.

Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak was quoted by state news agencies as saying Friday that experts from a United Nations program had said Russian ecologists were trying to “derail” the games instead of solving the region's environmental problems. A spokesman for the United Nations Environment Program had no immediate comment.

Last month, the head of the Russian branch of the World Wildlife Fund said the group had stopped conferring with Olympic organizers. Greenpeace Russia has also cut off coordination.

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