MOSCOW — The budget for building venues for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi will not be cut, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said Thursday.

A Putin deputy overseeing the construction for the games suggested last month that the global economic crisis might force Russia to reduce the $12 billion cost for the venues, which are being built almost entirely from scratch.

"So far as the financial resources for carrying out the necessary preparatory work, they've already been allocated and they won't be reduced," Putin said in a nationally televised question-and-answer session.

The government is paying about half the bill.