MOSCOW (AP) — The chief organizer of the Winter Olympics in Sochi has taken a job managing the assets of a pro-Kremlin billionaire.
Dmitry Chernyshenko has been named as the new head of Volga Group, a holding company which owns large stakes in some of Russia’s largest oil, gas and construction companies and is under U.S. sanctions.
The company is owned by Gennady Timchenko, who was placed on the U.S. government sanctions list following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in February as a member of what the U.S. called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “inner circle.”
Volga Group owns the majority of Stroytransgaz, a major construction firm building stadiums and facilities for the 2018 World Cup in Russia.
Chernyshenko led Sochi’s winning bid for the Olympics and headed the local organizing committee for last February’s games.
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