Putin said he was not surprised by Chinese fans’ interest in Russian skaters

Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an interview with China Media Corporation, said he was not surprised by Chinese fans’ interest in Russian sports stars, emphasizing that in Russia they respect the successes of Chinese athletes.

“We also watched with bated breath at the young Russian figure skaters – Trusova, Valieva, Shcherbakova. They have a large fan community on the Chinese Internet, and Chinese netizens even call them fairies who literally fight against each other. Do you think that humanitarian and sports cooperation is of great value to our friendship?

– Certainly. Sports cooperation within the framework of humanitarian interaction is very important because it establishes direct contacts between people. The fact that fans of our athletes appear in China is not surprising, because they are shining stars. We follow the successes of Chinese athletes with great respect and always look at how the work is organized.

Of course, we know Chinese athletes. We know, for example, gymnasts and other disciplines. It is important that work in China is organized at a good professional level in the field of high-level sports.

It is of course no less important to establish contacts at a more modest level, at the level of physical culture, at the regional level, at the level of competitions, for example between higher education institutions, between provinces and the constituent entities of the Russian Federation.

It seems to me that we must also look in this direction. In my opinion, that would be very interesting. In fact, to my knowledge, this is what is done within the framework of interregional cooperation. Colleagues also pay the necessary attention to this. I’m sure it’s going to happen, I’m sure it’s going to grow.

Do you know what’s important? That our sports interaction is devoid of all kinds of not only political, but also economic conditions.

Unfortunately, today’s international sport is increasingly immersed in commercialism. We, in our sports relations, have nothing like that and, I hope, there will never be anything like that,” Putin said, whose words are given on the Kremlin website .