MOSCOW, July 18, Anastasia Panina. Two-time Olympic champion in figure skating Oleg Protopopov said in an interview that he was required to leave his Swiss home in connection with the renovation of the building. Protopopov has lived in Switzerland since leaving the USSR in 1979, when he and his wife and partner Lyudmila Belousova, while on tour with the Leningrad Ballet on Ice, asked for political asylum. Belousova died in 2017 at the age of 82. Protopopov turned 90 on July 16. «The company, which wants to renovate the house and update it from 2023, demanded that all residents leave. Only then can they start work. And I have not received the exact information yet — they will translate me from German into Russian, but it will be only on Monday. And then I will understand for sure what is happening here. It was a big shock for me, «said Protopopov. «I have not yet found a place where I will live. at the age of 90, it’s impossible to drag all this material, costumes and everything that is in this house. You understand that I can’t do this,” the skater added. Belousova and Protopopov became Olympic champions in 1964 and 1968 in doubles skating, as well as four-time world champions and four-time European champions.
