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Prime Minister Vladimir Putin attends the ceremony announcing the host of the 2016 World Hockey Championships

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Vladimir Putin's speech at the ceremony:

Dear President Fasel, dear members of the International Ice Hockey Federation, ladies and gentlemen.

It is a great pleasure to address you today and to thank you for your decision to honour the bid of the Russian Federation to host the World Hockey Cup in 2016.

Hockey is an international game, and it has been our national pastime. Indeed our hockey teams have achieved many victories at both Olympic and World Championships in competition with the most formidable opponents. The list of our world famous hockey players: Mr Tretyak, Kharlamov, Yakushev, Petrov, Mikhailov, Firsov, Polupanov, Kasatonov, Fetisov, goes on and on.

Russia deserves to host this championship not just to commemorate our glorious achievements, and not just because we have not been awarded this honour in decades, but because of our great desire to stage a great event and promote the ideas of sportsmanship, athletism and fair play. In fact today we need a new starting point to revive this period of hockey.

And I took time too, to learn to skate and I must admit it was not easy, not even for a person who had been practicing sports for decades. And I had an even harder time learning to play ice hockey. And now I have first hand experience of playing this truly great game.

Russia is eager to host this great event. We shall provide top quality skating rinks and beautiful ice, not because it is so cold for March each year in Russia, but because we shall put our hearts and minds into the work to be done. Athletes, fans, reporters will find excellent service and warm welcome in any weather. We shall also provide free passage to and from events and there are going to be other perks too.

Russia is and has for a long time been devoted to hockey, but today we need a new starting point to revitalize this period of this great game on a big scale and we would love to share it with the whole world.

Thank you for your attention.