This year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi is likely to be the most expensive Olympic Games to date, with its Russian organisers thought to have spent as much as US$50bn (£30.5bn, €36.6bn) on the two-week spectacle.

The Games, which take place in the Black Sea coastal city, have been funded by a mixture of both public and private capital, with the overall expenditure raising concerns among some professionals related to the winter tournament.

It is believed the Games could cost as much as US$10bn (£6.1bn, €7.3bn) more than the Beijing Olympics, which was implemented over a longer time period at the height of the Chinese summer in 2008.

International skiing chief Gian-Franco Kasper has already told of how such a large spend could be a bad example for future holders of the tournament to follow.

"It is an enormous cost. It could be that Sochi is more expensive than Beijing 2008 which was the much bigger summer Games,” Kasper told Reuters.

"Those costs in Sochi are enormous and a bad example for future candidates. Most nations cannot afford it. Switzerland, France could never afford such amounts. Particularly for winter games.”

The Games are set to open on the 7 February, however security concerns have been raised by a number of attending nations following a spate of terrorist attacks along the western edge of the Caucasus Mountains.

Five arrests were made in the region recently, following back-to-back suicide bombings in the city of Volgograd between 29-30 December, with the attacks killing 34 people and wounding over 100 others.

Though the attacks are yet to be claimed by any group, Russian security forces are focusing on insurgents who are trying to develop an Islamic state in the region.

As a result, the Russian Government has called in 37,000 personnel to provide security at the Games.

The host nation has also come under strong criticism from both athletes and attending nations who are at conflict with the country’s controversial approach to certain human rights issues, as well as its strict implementation of anti-gay laws.

The country has been getting into the Olympic spirit, however, with the Winter Olympic Organising Committee (SOOC) launching a scheme last year to reward commuters with Moscow underground tickets in exchange for exercise.

You can read more about SOOC’s Olympic schemes here.