Sikharulidze: “We cannot say that we have to catch up with world figure skating. In many ways, we are ahead of the rest of the planet. »

Acting head of the Russian Figure Skating Federation (FFKKR) Anton Sikharulidze said that Russian skaters are not inferior to foreign skaters, despite the suspension.

Russian figure skaters have been suspended from participating in competitions under the auspices of the International Skating Union (ISU) since March 2022 due to the situation in Ukraine.

— We have contacts with the ISU. But at the request of our colleagues, we are not addressing the question of the return of Russian athletes to international competitions. They ask us how to develop the Grand Prix system, what we think about the development of arbitration. We love figure skating, when an international organization contacts us, we are happy to cooperate. It’s about athletes, it’s about sports. They look from the outside and turn to us for help in the development of figure skating.

—Is there hypocrisy on their part?

“Let them determine their own position.” I am not in favor of saying that everything is bad in international figure skating without us. There are guys who skate very well. They have their own stars. But neither can we say that they have developed to such an extent that they need to be caught up. In many areas we are ahead of others, but certainly not behind. We would not want world figure skating to decline and end without our participation; we wish them no harm. Let’s compete together quickly, ”reports the correspondent of according to Sikharulidze’s words.