Moscow - With terrorist strikes in the region clouding the run-up to the Winter Olympics, Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Sochi on Friday to inspect the site of the Games and started his tour by taking several runs down a ski slope.

Putin will review preparations for the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, being rehearsed at Fisht Stadium, as well as inspect coastal and mountain venues for the competition, press secretary Dmitry Peskov told the Itar-Tass news agency.

The alpine slope at Laura Stadium where Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev took several runs was designed to host cross-country skiing and biathlon events for both professionals and amateurs, though it will not be used for next month's Olympics.

Putin arrived in Sochi after visiting Volgograd, an industrial center about 400 miles to the northeast, which was hit this week by two bombing attacks that left about 30 people dead and scores injured.

In the first strike, a suicide bomber set off an explosive device Sunday at the entrance of a crowded railway station. The next morning, another suicide bomber hit a crowded trolley bus in the city center. No one has taken responsibility for the attacks.

Putin visited hospitals where the victims were being treated and laid flowers at the bombing sites.

"The heinousness of the crimes committed here in Volgograd doesn't require any additional comments," Putin said Wednesday during a meeting with law enforcement officials in the city. "Whatever the motives of the criminals, there is no justification for the crimes committed against civilian persons, especially against women and children."

In October, a Volgograd passenger bus was attacked by a bomber who killed herself and seven other people and injured 37.

The three bombings followed threats in July by Doku Umarov, the leader of an Islamist movement in the restive North Caucasus region, who has been blamed by Russian officials for a number of terrorist attacks. Umarov swore in a video statement that his fighters would use "maximum force" to prevent the Olympics, which he called "satanic games to be held on the bones of our ancestors."

Oleg Rubezhansky, owner of a Sochi television station and editor of the local newspaper Mestnaya, said Friday that the Olympics host city seemed under siege, with thousands of policemen brought from all over Russia patrolling deserted streets.

"People are afraid to come out into the streets as they don't feel comfortable walking or driving somewhere in town and being stopped more than once, their papers checked and their cars searched, as Putin and Medvedev enjoy skiing up in the hills," Rubezhansky said in a telephone interview. "All local medium- and low-level chiefs and bureaucrats were handed brooms and spades and sent to the Olympic Village in the Imeretian Valley to join thousands of workers giving the place the last polishing strokes."

Rubezhansky said food prices have risen in recent weeks because of seriously limited deliveries of goods and food products.

"All farmers' food and vegetable markets in and around Sochi were closed down in the last weeks of December, and many people couldn't for the first time buy a turkey or a duck for their New Year's dinner," Rubezhansky said. "Fearing their life becoming unbearable during the (Olympic) Games, many people are planning to leave to stay with friends or relatives someplace else in the country until the Games are over."

Rubezhansky said hundreds of palm trees were planted in recent weeks around Fisht Stadium, a 40,000-seat venue that will hold the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

All venues are ready and have been tested at least twice during top-ranking international competitions over the past two seasons, an official of the Olympic Organizing Committee said Friday.

"Everything is ready except the opening ceremony, the rehearsals for which will continue to the last day," said the official, who was not authorized to speak with the media and therefore requested anonymity. "The content of the opening ceremony is the closest guarded secret of the Games."

Even though temperatures in Sochi, on the Black Sea coast, fluctuated around 57 degrees, the Olympic slopes up in the mountains were reportedly covered with plenty of snow.

After skiing, Putin and Medvedev sat in the sun at a mountain cafe and chatted over a glass of mulled wine, Itar-Tass reported.

Putin is expected to stay in Sochi through Sunday.