NOVOIMERETINSKAYA BUKHTA, Russia, July 13 - The Russian city of Sochi can relish its victory in the race to host the 2014 Winter Olympics but some local residents fear for their homes ahead of large-scale construction work.

Ivan Tereutov's ancestors spent a century wandering in exile in Turkey before they returned to their native Russia and settled in Novoimeretinskaya Bukhta, a quiet corner in a large valley on the Black Sea coast near Sochi.

Now, though, the Olympic Park -- comprising the Olympic Village, media centres, hotels and many competition venues -- will be built on their doorstep. It is unclear how many people, if any, will have to move. But local residents believe their way of life will change dramatically.

Standing in his neighbour's garden among rows of carefully tended vegetables, Tereutov shakes his grey beard, which tumbles down his chest. "Our forefathers are buried here," he said. "No one is going to leave."

Tereutov and his neighbours are "Old Believers" -- religious purists expelled from the Orthodox church 300 years ago because they rejected church innovations like baptising believers by sprinkling water instead of immersing them completely.

Marked out by their beards and strict religious rites, they were persecuted at home for their beliefs. Many fled abroad, an exodus that created communities of Old Believers in Latin America and the United States that still exist today.

In a gesture of reconciliation Tsar Nicholas II invited Tereutov's ancestors back home in 1911 and gave them the plots of land they have been farming ever since.

OLYMPIC THREAT

At the beginning of this year, local residents heard some of their houses would have to be demolished to free up space for the Olympic buildings. When the International Olympic Committee came to Sochi, they staged a public protest against these plans.

Andrei Braginsky from the bidding committee defended the proposals at the time, saying those affected would be paid at market prices for their land.

But prominent local campaigner Andrei Korutun says the compensation is many times less than the market price, which will will only rise as the Olympics loom.

Local people say the regional governor has since publicly assured them no homes would be knocked down, but uncertainty persists.

"These are just promises. When I personally met the regional governor and the Sochi mayor, they promised this but said they could give no guarantees," Korutun said.

"We are for the Olympics but we are against resettlement," said Andrei Petrov in the shade of a sprawling grapevine by his house, where he was born in 1948 and lives with his family.

"We would be sorry to leave here and be put up in 'book-stands'," he said in a dismissive reference to cramped apartment blocks. "We are used to living on land all our lives."

1

2