AFP/Sochi

Putin arrived in the Sochi region ahead of Friday’s opening ceremony in typically confident mood, taking top IOC members to meet leopards being bred in the Sochi region as part of a re-introduction programme.

But analysts have said that Putin has staked his personal reputation on the success of the Games, which have been inextricably linked with his name ever since he spearheaded the successful Russian bid in 2007.

The Games have in particular been shadowed by concerns over the implementation in Sochi of a Russian law against “gay propaganda” to minors, as well as security concerns due to the proximity of the region to the violence-plagued Northern Caucasus.

But Putin assured International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Thomas Bach that all guests would feel comfortable at Russia’s Olympics. “I want to assure you that we will do everything so that Sochi is a hospitable home for all the participants, for all the guests,” Putin told Bach as he met members of the IOC in Sochi.

“The main task is to make the Sochi Games a celebration for all sport lovers in the world,” Putin added.

“We will do everything to hold the Olympic Games at the very highest level,” he said. ‘The ecological situation has improved’

Putin earlier took Jean Claude Killy, the French skiing legend who has been the International Olympic Committee’s pointman for Sochi, and IOC Executive Director Gilbert Felli in his own jeep to a nature reserve above the city. However one of the leopards called Grom (Thunder) took none to happily to the arrival of the large group of guests and attacked two journalists inside the cage, state Russian media said.

Russia is working to reintroduce the Persian leopard to the nearby mountains as part of measures aimed at showing that the Olympic Games will benefit and not hurt the environment. “The ecological situation has improved many times over,” said Putin. “According to some estimates, it has improved by a factor of four. There are questions which always crop up during such huge construction but in general the situation has not worsened but improved.”

However environmentalists scoff at such claims, saying that the Games have irreversibly damaged once virgin environments by the sea and in the mountains. After six-month old Grom had lashed out at journalists, state television noted that the media left the cage and Putin went in himself to calm the animal. One reporter was scratched on the hand and one lightly bitten in the knee, the RIA Novosti news agency said.

State television showed Putin cradling Grom on his knee with the animal now seemingly at ease. “I like animals, it seems I have a feeling for them,” said Putin. “We liked each other.”

Putin is well known for his meetings with wild animals which he uses to burnish his hardman image. As well as leopards, in the past he has met beasts including a tiger and a polar bear. Three pairs of adult leopards being kept in the big cages of the reserve have already given birth to four leopards in the last months.

Leopards have been extinct in this part of Russia since the 1950s.  To start the reintroduction programme, Russia received two male leopards as gifts from Turkmenistan and two females from Iran.