VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
ARCHIVE OF THE OFFICIAL SITE
OF THE 2008-2012 PRIME MINISTER
OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
VLADIMIR PUTIN
Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Good afternoon. You wanted to talk about the development of the Continental Hockey League KHL, and about additional support you need from the Government. Go ahead, please.
Alexander Medvedev: Mr Putin, the League has started its first season. Both experts and fans agree that this was a good and promising beginning.
I think that as the coach of the club and the team, Vyacheslav Bykov, will give a more professional answer to this question. But as the League's president, I would like to emphasize that the principle we put into the League's foundation, the principle of giving priority to sports, is already yielding results. The quality of play is going up, the competition is tough, and games are interesting. We have many good Russian and foreign players.
Our foreign clubs are not in the League's backyard. They show interesting, good hockey. Now we have many interesting, good teams which are not only trying to win, but also to delegate their players to the national team, because Mr Bykov and I took its interests into account. This is also our fundamental principle - to consider the interests of the League's team. I suggest that Mr Bykov shares his thoughts with you.
Vyacheslav Bykov: I fully agree with Mr Medvedev. The trend is positive. I am particularly pleased that the League focuses on details and follows fundamental principles. The referees are the most telling example. They are more professional, and the teams and players criticize them much less. This is an achievement. Division into zones makes it possible to create strong competition within them apart from general championships. In other words, play-offs always attract a lot of public attention.
I am sure that there are problems, and we should work on them. We should all be flexible so that the League, which is in its first year, continues gaining momentum. But it is clear that competition between players for getting into the League's team is so high that it allows national teams to attract more players.
The arrival of Russian players from the NHL makes it possible to boost teamwork. Together with the Hockey Federation and our League, we are paying great attention to training of the League's first national team.
We are world champions, and our team will be in the focus of attention. We should prepare very thoroughly so as to prove that our success is indisputable. We will show that we are going to be in the lead for a long time.
Alexander Medvedev: We have very good prospects for the League's expansion. A number of West European and Central European countries are negotiating admission.
I think that the League's expansion will bring our hockey to pan-European level. At this point, we will not be able to do without the Government's support. We have drafted a number of proposals on organising the work of the first team under the programme for the development of physical fitness and sports. After all, we should not limit ourselves to the sport of records. Together with Mr Bykov and the Federation, we have been thinking about how to develop hockey across the board -- from children's schools to teams of veterans. This is indeed our game. It would make sense to include hockey in this programme, and allocate money for its development, including funds from the federal budget. All of us really hope that this will be done.
Vladimir Putin: We can talk separately about funding from the federal budget.
As you know, the world is presently involved in discussing acute financial problems. The same is true of our country. But life should not be limited to that, although just five minutes ago I discussed the same problems with my colleagues.
As for the Continental Hockey League, I believe that it is not just a sports project. It will make it possible to consider seriously the restoration of a single social and cultural space on post-Soviet territory, because a shared interest in hockey will unite people from former Soviet republics. Hockey was popular in the Soviet Union. If we manage to attract Central European countries to the League, some Scandinavian states, and other Europeans, it will acquire European configuration.
It goes without saying that this will be good for our relations with next-door neighbours and partners. Let us pave the way to broad cooperation in sports. This is a good initiative and we are ready to support it. Let us talk in more detail about what you should do, and how we can help you.
