Putin receives flame for Russia's Olympic Games

Moscow (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin received the Olympic flame in Moscow on Sunday ahead of next year's Winter Games in Sochi that have been marred by protests over his perceived crackdown on dissent.

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.

The torch was flown into Moscow's Vnukovo-3 airport -- reserved exclusively for VIPs and officials -- before being rushed in a white van to Red Square for a cauldron-lighting ceremony overseen by Putin and broadcast live across the nation.

The Games will show Russia's "respect for equality and diversity -- ideals that are so intertwined with the ideals of the Olympic movement itself", Putin declared in a veiled reference to Western criticism of his policies.

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 Games' opening ceremony on February 7.

But things off got to a rocky start when a small relay around Red Square on Sunday saw the flame briefly go out on one of the torchbearers just as he was passing through a Kremlin gate.

An official in a black coat relit the torch with a simple cigarette lighter. The original Greek flame remained lit in the Red Square couldron the entire time.

Sochi 2014 Organising Committee chief Dmitry Chernyshenko quickly dismissed the incident as a minor hiccup that had no bearing on the Games.

"I would not attach too much importance to what happened and call on people not to pay attention to it," he said.

Relay runners will cover 65,000 kilometres (40,400 miles) 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 takes great pride in its space programme and 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 because of the dangers involved.

"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.

The flame will also visit the North Pole aboard a nuclear-powered icebreaker and be taken to the bottom of Lake Baikal.

'Human rights violations'

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 $50 billion (37 billion euros) of state and corporate money for construction projects aimed at turning Sochi into a global tourism magnet after all the athletes depart.

Environmental groups have panned the massive project for its alleged disregard for local flora and fauna as well as its use of low-cost migrant labour.

But some of the heaviest criticism has come from international human rights groups and governments concerned with what many fear is an increasingly shaky state of freedom under Putin's rule.

"The Olympic flame can throw the light on the human rights violations that the authorities would prefer to hide behind the celebratory decorations," said John Dalhuisen of Amnesty International.

Putin in June signed into law legislation that punishes the dissemination of information about homosexuality to minors but which critics say can be used for a broad crackdown against gays.

The law sparked calls from campaigners and celebrities such as British actor Stephen Fry to strip Russia of the event and move it to a nation that respects individual rights.

But newly-elected IOC president Thomas Bach said on September 29 that he had received assurances from Russian officials that the "anti-gay propaganda" law would not affect athletes participating in the Games.