Here is the full text of the speech by the new President of the ROC at the annual Olympic Assembly, which took place today at the Russian Olympic Committee.
Dear participants of the Olympic Assembly, honored guests!
Today, we have gathered to discuss the future of the Olympic movement in our country.
First of all, I would like to express my gratitude to the President of Russia, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, for the trust he has placed in me and for granting me permission to run for the position of President of the Russian Olympic Committee.
I was nominated by esteemed members of the International Olympic Committee, recognized titans of world sports—Shamil Anvarovich Tarpishchev, Vitaly Georgievich Smirnov, and dozens of sports associations—members of the Russian Olympic Committee.
Thank you all for believing in me and the team of the President. I fully understand the responsibility that will be placed upon me when the Olympic family supports me in this election.
I would like to extend a special thanks to the previous leaders of the ROC—Vitaly Georgievich Smirnov, Leonid Vasilievich Tyagachev, Alexander Dmitrievich Zhukov, and Stanislav Alekseevich Pozdnyakov—for building a solid Olympic foundation, serving the Olympic ideals, and developing high-performance sports.
Today, Russian sport is facing unprecedented external pressure. Thousands of our athletes are being discriminated against. The purpose of these sanctions is clear: not only to discriminate against our sport, but also to provoke us into retaliatory actions, to force us to slam the door shut.
The result of this is predictable: Russia's return to the global sports arena after self-isolation would be virtually impossible—there will simply be no one left to compete at the high level our national sports have been working towards for over 100 years.
To avoid this fatal scenario, it is crucial that we do not succumb to unnecessary emotions and ensure that our athletes have every opportunity to win medals at international competitions and bring them back home—to Russia. They do not renounce their Russian citizenship, and the world knows which country they represent. We must not create additional obstacles for them from within.
It is time to end the aggressive rhetoric towards our international colleagues. Many of them, including members of the IOC, have long understood that global sports cannot function without Russia. During numerous unofficial contacts, they have explicitly stated that they want Russia to return to the international Olympic movement.
For the same reasons, new intergovernmental formats like the BRICS Games, the SCO Games, the Games of the Future, the Union Games, and other competitions organized by Russia, are held not instead of but alongside traditional international events and in accordance with the international sports calendar.
At the same time, a significant strengthening of legal efforts to restore the Russian flag at the Olympic, Paralympic, and Deaflympic Games is an important part of our plan. To achieve this, we need to expand our team of international lawyers who protect the interests of Russian sports in international courts and other bodies. It is surprising that there are only three lawyers on the ROC's staff.
To effectively implement these and other tasks, we must optimize management processes in our national sports system and create a unified communication channel with the international sports community. In essence, we are talking about creating a "one-stop shop" and a unified legal and media headquarters for all sports matters.
This will enable multilateral negotiations and gradually expand equal international sports cooperation. This is a key part of the process of returning Russia to global sports.
At the same time, the autonomy of the Russian Olympic Committee will be preserved. There will be no merging of the Ministry of Sports and the ROC. We are talking about unified and coordinated actions in the interests of Russia's return to the international Olympic movement.
A public organization cannot handle coordinated political pressure from the outside on its own.
Another vital component of success is the consolidation of all resources in our shared ecosystem of the Ministry of Sports of Russia and the Russian Olympic Committee. Sports facilities should be constantly filled with training camps and competitions, and finances must reach every athlete. By the way, I would like to inform you that today, in connection with the 25th anniversary of the Sports Training Center, an order has been signed. Instead of ceremonial banquets, each athlete will receive a reward of 50,000 rubles, and each coach will receive 100,000 rubles.
These goals are also the focus of the new Strategy for the Development of the Russian Olympic Committee that we are currently working on, as well as the updated version of the ROC Charter, which complies with the requirements of the Olympic Charter—the foundational document for all participants in the Olympic movement.
The Strategy includes clearly defined initiatives:
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Lifting all restrictions and allowing our athletes full participation in all international competitions under the national flag.
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Integrating Russian representation into the governing bodies of international sports organizations: Councils, Executives, Committees, and Commissions.
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Restoring the status of "RUSADA" and the status of the Russian Olympic Committee within the IOC.
Dear colleagues, I sincerely hope for your support and trust.
