MOSCOW, July 15, Anatoly Samokhvalov. Rostelecom became the general partner of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR) after assistance from Russian President Vladimir Putin, but the situation did not develop as three-time Olympic champion Irina Rodnina described it, then-president of the FFKKR Valentin Piseev said.
Rodnina said in an interview as part of the show «In Two Words» that Alexander Gorshkov (headed the FFKKR from 2010 until his death in November 2022) approached the president, spoke about the problems of figure skating, Putin called the head of Rostelecom to him and after that the problem was immediately solved.
However, according to Piseev, this story is not true — with the search for a partner for the federation, everything developed not so simply and the problem was not solved at once.
“It was in 2007. I was a member of the presidential sports council. We were looking for sponsors who could help the federation. I talked about this with Vladimir Igorevich Kozhin, the presidential affairs manager, he made efforts, introduced me to various business representatives but still we didn't succeed.In February 2007 there was a sports council in Sochi.I thought if I don't take the chance to meet with the president, we'll never find any sponsor.After the meeting was over, Putin walked down the corridor «, I tried to stay as close as possible. The President was stopped by (State Duma deputy Artur) Chilingarov and they were talking about something, and I took such a position that Vladimir Vladimirovich would not pass me by. As soon as I had such an opportunity, I went up to the President and I say: “Vladimir Vladimirovich, excuse me, please, the Figure Skating Federation has problems.” He: “What?” Me: “We don’t have a general partner.” It was “partner” that I said. Putin immediately understood me, leaned a little and asked: “How much?” I name the number and he immediately told me that it’s not that much money, sometimes a player gets more,” Piseev said.
«The President calls Kozhin and tells him that it's really impossible to find a partner for the skaters who give the country so many medals. «Don't worry, we'll help,» Putin said and left. he was then deputy head of the presidential administration. Sechin asked me if I had talked with the head of state and what questions I had raised. I told him about the general partner. To which he told me to write a letter addressed to the Minister of Communications (Leonid) Reiman. I handed over the letter to the presidential administration, then elections were held in the country and in response there was silence for several months. I became interested in his fate, the entire leadership in the presidential administration changed, but I still found out that the letter was in Rostelecom. I called there, they confirmed to me, that they really have a letter. They were waiting for someone to contact them. I met with the general director of Rostelecom, he explained that in 2007 he would not be able to allocate anything to us, since the year was ending, but since 2008 years and to this day, Rostelecom is the general partner of the federation,” said the former head of the FFKKR.