TORCH: The Olympic flame has arrived in Moscow ahead of next year's Winter Games in Sochi following a seven day tour in Greece.
TORCH: The Olympic flame has arrived in Moscow ahead of next year's Winter Games in Sochi following a seven day tour in Greece.
The cherished symbol of world peace and international camaraderie was lit in Greece's Ancient Olympia on September 29 and officially handed over to a Russian delegation in Athens on Saturday.A few dozen activists staged a peaceful protest at Panathinaiko Stadium in Athens, the stadium for the first modern Olympic Games in 1896, against Russia's law banning gay propaganda.
The torch was flown into Moscow's Vnukovo-3 airport - reserved exclusively for VIPs and officials - before being rushed to Red Square for a cauldron-lighting ceremony overseen by President Vladimir Putin.
The traditional torch relay will kick off on Monday and conclude when the cauldron is lit at Sochi's brand new Fisht Olympic Stadium at the opening ceremony for the Games on February 7.
Runners will cover 65,000 kilometres as they wind their way across Russia's 83 regions - stopping only to see the torch visit the International Space Station on November 7-11.
Russia harbours great pride in its space program and had spent years looking for a way to feature the ISS in the Olympic event.
The final plan will see the torch flown to the space station by a special Soyuz mission while the flame itself remains safely rooted to the ground.
The silver-and-red torch will then be taken out for an honorary space walk on November 9 by Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazansky. Russian officials have made clear that the torch will not be lit when it boards the Soyuz out of safety concerns.
"It would be strange if a cosmonaut went into a rocket with a lit torch," Kotov joked before blasting off for the ISS on September 26.
Putin was at his diplomatic best when he managed in 2007 to convince the International Olympic Committee to bring the Winter Games to Sochi - a Black Sea summer resort lined with beaches and Russia's lone stretch of palm trees.
Russia has since earmarked a record $US50 billion ($A53.38 billion) of state and corporate money for construction projects aimed at turning Sochi into a global tourism magnet after all the athletes depart.
