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Price Gouging for Olympic Building

GORKI, Moscow Region — The presidential audit department has uncovered a case of priced gouging for construction materials being used in building Olympic facilities, audit department head Konstantin Chuichenko said.

"We have uncovered unpleasant facts related to the pricing of bulk materials, like sand and gravel mix and crushed stone," Chuichenko said at a meeting with President Dmitry Medvedev on Tuesday.

The audit found out that the price for such materials grew from 360 to 800 rubles ($13 to $28), while an average price for them in Russia varies from 250 to 400 rubles, he said.

"This is just beyond all reason," he said.

The Regional Development Ministry is responsible for this issue, Chuichenko said in reply to a question from Medvedev.

The presidential audit department has drawn up proposals on "imposing disciplinary sanctions on the people who allowed this growth in prices and discharging them from building Olympic facilities," he said. Medvedev said Prosecutor General Yury Chaika should look into the matter as well.

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