Sochi tickets go on sale in Russia

Tickets went on sale for the Sochi Winter Olympics in 2014 on Thursday, one year ahead of the opening ceremony, but they were only available to Russians and foreigners living in Russia. "On February 7, with a year to go until the start of the XXII Winter Games in Sochi, tickets to the Olympic Games are going on sale," the organising committee said in a statement. Tickets went on sale on the website www.sochi2014.com, which says that tickets can be picked up in Sochi or Moscow or can be delivered around Russia to customers, who have to show valid passports. The website says that only Russian citizens or foreign citizens temporarily resident in Russia can buy tickets from Thursday on the website, which requires payment using Visa cards - as Visa are sponsorsh of the Games. International sports fans have to buy tickets through their national Olympic and Paralympic Committees and authoritised ticket sellers, the site says. Tickets to the Olympics start at 500 rubles ($16.65), while the most expensive are 50,0000 rubles ($1,665), the organising committee said. "The Olympic games will be affordable," the head of Russia's Olympics Committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko said Thursday, with 42 percent of tickets costing less than 6,000 rubles ($200). The site has a limit of four tickets per person for the most popular events: the opening ceremony, ice hockey and figure skating. Tickets for final stages of the ice hockey event, which cost up to 34,000 rubles ($1,130) for the final, were no longer available half an hour after sales opened, the RIA Novosti news agency reported. Source : AFP