Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday took part in a ceremony in Moscow to launch the torch relay for next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi.
The torch will go on a 123-day journey covering some 65,000km (40,000 miles) before the Games start in the Black Sea resort on February 7, 2014.
The torch’s journey will include a trip into space.
But the relay got off to a rocky start when the flame briefly went out during the loop through the Kremlin.
A security guard had to re-light it with a cigarette lighter.
Putin said: “the games would show Russia’s “respect for equality and diversity”.
The run-up to the Games has so far been marred by controversy over a new Russian law that restricts the spread of information about homosexuality, as well as allegations by rights groups that authorities have rounded up migrant workers who helped build the Games venues in Sochi.
The Olympic flame had been flown in from Greece after being lit last Sunday at the birthplace of the ancient Games.
The sun’s rays were used to light the Olympic flame during a ceremony last Sunday in Greece
Hoisting the flame in Moscow, Mr Putin declared in a ceremony shown live on television that “our shared dream is becoming reality”.
He said the Games would show “respect for equality and diversity – ideals that are so intertwined with the ideals of the Olympic movement itself”.
Mr Putin said the relay would show off Russia “the way that it is and the way we love it”.
“Today is a joyous and momentous day,” he said. “The Olympic flame – the symbol of the planet’s main sports event, the symbol of peace and friendship – has arrived in Russia, and in a few minutes it will be on its way around our huge country.”
On its journey the flame will:
• Travel to the North Pole on an atomic-powered icebreaker
• Ascend Europe’s highest peak, Mt Elbrus
• Be taken to the depths of Lake Baikal in Siberia
• Be taken on a spacewalk (unlit) at the International Space Station.
The 2014 Winter Olympics, officially the XXII Olympic Winter Games, or the 22nd Winter Olympics, are scheduled to take place 7 to 23 February 2014, in Sochi, Russia.
Both the Olympics and 2014 Winter Paralympics are being organized by the Sochi Organizing Committee (SOC).
Sochi was selected as the host city on July 4, 2007, during the 119th I.O.C. Session held in Guatemala City, defeating bids from Salzburg, Austria, and Pyeongchang, South Korea.
The Sochi Olympics will be the first Winter Olympics (and first Olympics altogether) for the Russian Federation, since the 1980 Summer Olympics were in Moscow when that was the capital of the Soviet Union.
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