Sports subject: Russia's return to the world stage will be discussed in Krasnoyarsk

The international forum "Russia — a sporting power" will be held in Krasnoyarsk this year. One of the main topics will once again be international cooperation, the importance of which has increased especially after the mass suspension of Russian teams from competitions in 2022. Representatives of several dozen countries, including high-ranking sports officials, are expected to arrive in Krasnoyarsk. At the same time, a significant part of the program will be devoted to the development of sports in Russia.

Fighting isolation

The Forum has been held since 2009. Earlier, it was hosted by Kazan (2009, 2021), Moscow (2010), Saransk (2011), Yakutsk (2012), Cheboksary (2014), sports resort Dobrograd in the Vladimir region (2016), Ulyanovsk (2018), Nizhniy Novgorod (2019), Kemerovo (2022), Perm (2023), Ufa (2024) and Samara (2025).

On October 20, at a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian Sports Minister and Chairman of the Russian Olympic Committee Mikhail Degtyarev announced that 20 sports ministers and heads of national Olympic Committees (NOCs) from foreign countries would take part in the forum. In total, representatives of 60 states are expected.

In particular, the heads of the relevant ministries of Togo, Ghana, Seychelles, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Angola and Burkina Faso were invited to the session on cooperation between Russia and Africa. The President of the Olympic Committee of Equatorial Guinea and the Honorary Consul of the Republic of the Congo in St. Petersburg are also planning to participate in the discussion.

Another session will be devoted to the work of the athletes' commissions of the National Olympic Committees. The participants will discuss how effectively these structures protect the interests of athletes and build relationships with the leadership of the Olympic movement. Among the speakers are 2016 Olympic champion in handball Vladlena Bobrovnikova (Russia), participant of the 2016 Olympic Games in swimming Fatima Alkaramova (Azerbaijan), Olympic champion in rowing, chairman of the National Hockey Federation Alexander Bogdanovich (Belarus), participant of the 2022 Olympic Games in alpine skiing Maxim Gordeev (Kyrgyzstan), participant of three Olympic Games in swimming Tonvitini Khem (Cambodia), as well as Ramzier Rachabov (Tajikistan) and Majoli Fanouvong (Laos).

The international agenda will not be limited to traditional sports. The forum will also discuss the development of high-tech, innovative areas. In particular, we will talk about the "Games of the Future" and digital sports, which combines real competitions with virtual ones. David Allatore Lopez, founder of Future Sports Lab, Goran Kuzmic, President of the European Esports Federation and the Serbian Esports Federation, as well as Oleg Pekos, First Deputy Minister of Digital Technologies of Uzbekistan, will take part in the discussion along with Russian officials and managers.

The role of national Olympic committees in the modern sports movement will be discussed separately. The heads of the NOCs of Togo, Kenya and Madagascar, as well as the President of the Cycling Federation of Republika Srpska, Vladimir Kuvalja, will take part in this discussion along with Mikhail Degtyarev.

Another topic will be the protection of athletes' interests in international sports, judicial and disciplinary bodies. ROC Secretary General Viktor Berezov, heads of the legal departments of national sports federations and Mikhail Vinogradov, Head of the Main Directorate for International Legal Cooperation of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, will speak at the relevant session. In addition, a joint meeting of the boards of the Ministries of Sports of Russia and Belarus is planned.

— As usual, this forum has a rather intense international agenda, and this is great, because the more different sports officials come to us, the more opportunities there are to influence the policies of the IOC and international federations, — Svetlana Zhurova, deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Olympic champion in speed skating in 2006, shared her opinion with Izvestia. — Such contacts have had a significant impact on the fact that over the past two years our Ministry of Sports and the ROC have managed to shift the situation with the suspension of Russian athletes and are gradually seeking their participation in major international competitions more and more. Moreover, many teams are already going there not in a neutral status, but under the Russian flag and anthem. To continue this trend, we need to continue intensive negotiations with colleagues from other countries at various venues, including the Russia — Sports Power Forum. It is encouraging that even now a lot of foreign sports ministers and NOC leaders are coming to Krasnoyarsk, who support us at this difficult moment.

The inside story

Russian sports federations and regional sports ministries will actively participate in the forum. In particular, representatives of the Russian Football Union (RFU), including Maxim Mitrofanov, the organization's secretary general, and Valery Karpin, the head coach of the Russian national team, will speak at several sessions.

Earlier, Mikhail Degtyarev noted that special attention will be paid to the prospects of holding international competitions in Russia. In February 2022, the IOC recommended against holding such tournaments on the territory of the Russian Federation. As a result, our country lost the right to host the men's World Volleyball Championship 2022, the World Youth Hockey Championship 2023 in Novosibirsk and Omsk, the World Adult Hockey Championship 2023 in St. Petersburg and the Summer Universiade 2023 in Yekaterinburg.

So far, this recommendation remains in force. This year, the IOC recommended lifting the relevant restrictions only for Belarus, whose athletes have also been sanctioned since February 2022. Meanwhile, Russian sports officials are looking for opportunities to hold international tournaments outside the traditional competition system, outside the jurisdiction of the IOC.

In 2024, Kazan hosted first the first "Games of the Future" in digital sports, and then the BRICS Games. In 2028, another major international event is scheduled to take place here — the VII World Nomad Games, the main multi-sport competition in national sports.

The fact that the Games will be held in Russia became known during the VI World Nomad Games, held in early September in Bishkek. The Russian delegation at these competitions was represented by 236 athletes, one of the largest teams. According to the decision of the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation, the Committee of National and Non-Olympic Sports (CNNVS) was responsible for coordinating her participation. Our national team took the third place in the team competition.

CNNVS traditionally participates in the Russia — Sports Power Forum. Last year in Samara, the committee held a panel session "The future of national sports: traditions in modern packaging."

"The Forum is rightfully one of the most significant events on the sports agenda not only in Russia, but also in most foreign countries," Boris Grishin, President of the National Olympic Committee of Russia, told Izvestia. — It is especially pleasant that every year the agenda of the business program focuses more and more on the development of national species, which are undoubtedly the foundation for the development of the industry. In the Year of the Unity of the Peoples of Russia, we have proved in practice how important and relevant the topic of supporting native Russian sports disciplines is. We are ready to share our accumulated experience, and I am sure that attention to the activities of the Russian National Olympic Committee will be among the priorities of most participants in the forum, which provides an excellent opportunity to meet on the same platform with the heads of regional ministries of sports and national federations to discuss plans for further cooperation. We plan to sign a number of agreements with the ministries of sports of some regions, and we will also consolidate legal relations with some all-Russian sports federations.

The head of the committee also noted that his organization is already actively preparing for the 2028 World Nomad Games in Kazan.

— Preparatory work is currently underway to form a Federal Organizing Committee, — said Grishin. — The project is quite complex and costly, but it is undoubtedly bright and necessary not only for our industry, but for the whole country. Throughout the history of the Games, the Russian National Olympic Committee has gained a lot of experience and understanding of all the subtleties of this project, and I am sure that we will be able to implement it with dignity in hospitable Kazan.

The forum will end on October 23 with the plenary session "Sport: Uniting the World in an era of Change", dedicated to the development of world sports in the context of global political changes. Vladimir Putin is expected to join the discussion via video link.