By Thomas Grove MOSCOW (Reuters) - Some of the biggest investors in Russia's 2014 Winter Olympics in the resort city of Sochi are requesting financial help from the government to help ease the burden from the Games' estimated $50 billion (33 billion pounds) price tag. In a letter obtained by Reuters on Tuesday and addressed to Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak, who is responsible for the 2014 Games, four major companies listed measures they want adopted to help them "secure a minimum return on investment".

A year before athletes converge on Sochi for the Winter Olympics, the Russian seaside city remains a vast construction site, with traffic choking the streets and locals bracing for another year of nonstop work to transform their landscape. "Construction is everywhere, it is very stressful," said Sochi native Lidiya Naberezhnaya, who lives in the central part of the Black Sea resort city.

International monitors Human Rights Watch took Russia to task Wednesday over abuses faced by migrant workers rushing to prepare for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, but Moscow quickly rejected the claims. In a report released a year before the February 7, 2014 start of the games, the US-based group said many construction workers from post-Soviet nations had their passports confiscated and worked 12-hour shifts with few days off at the Caucasus Mountains resort.