Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin spoke at the government hour in the State Duma

Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin spoke on Wednesday at a government hour in the State Duma. He assured the deputies that, despite “unprecedented discrimination” and “permanent international pressure”, our sport is developing successfully, and citizens are actively involved in physical education. The parliamentarians urged officials not to stop there and even offered their own ways of financing: from additional contributions from bookmakers to the revival of Sportloto.

Oleg Matytsin began his report by deciphering the three tasks facing Russian sports in general: “The first is the country’s defense capability: its citizens must be strong, mentally and physically prepared. The second is the ability of citizens to work: physical culture and sports make it possible to realize the intellectual abilities and professional skills of a person. And the third – so to speak, “childhood”: healthy people should be born and will be born healthy children. To achieve these goals, according to the minister, will help the widespread integration of sports – in education, health care, rural development programs, production and business. Under such a campaign, the official believes, even the development of a separate national project suggests itself, especially since the plan has to be carried out “under constant international pressure since 2014” and in “unprecedented discriminatory conditions.”

The subsequent report of Mr. Matytsin, with an array of optimistic statistics, was greeted by representatives of the relevant committees with polite enthusiasm, but not without criticism.

So, the first deputy chairman of the control committee, Mikhail Romanov (United Russia; ER), said that the Accounts Chamber revealed systematic violations in sectoral structures in terms of budget reporting requirements, and the Prosecutor General’s Office even reported “about the lack of an effective system for the development of a physical education system in the country and sports.” “The Control Committee notes that insufficiently effective sports management mechanisms do not allow to properly activate the resources of the state, society, sports organizations and educational institutions,” Mr. Romanov summed up. The head of the committee on physical culture and sports, Dmitry Svishchev (LDPR), in turn, insisted on increasing the pace of construction and restoration of sports infrastructure. He proposed to raise money for this by developing public-private partnership institutions.

Questions of rational spending of funds also worried other parliamentarians. Non-factional deputy Oksana Dmitrieva asked to disclose the ratio of funding for elite sports and mass sports, suggesting, taking into account the situation, to refocus on the latter. Oleg Matytsin reported that this ratio is already 60% to 40% in favor of mass sports, which “is a priority for the current team of the ministry”: “We understand that most of the population are not professional athletes, they require attention, an accessible environment for sports “.

However, the deputies did not forget about the professionals either. Amir Khamitov (New People) was interested in how things were going with the development of new formats for holding international competitions, and Kaplan Panesh (LDPR) was interested in the issues of preserving Russian athletes under their native flag. There are almost no problems with the starts, Mr. Matytsin assured: “The Games of the BRICS, SCO, CIS countries, university sports festivals, the Paralympic Games. For us, there are no unfriendly countries in sports, we do not hold it as an alternative and we always invite everyone.”

The devotion of athletes to their homeland, the minister believes, should be ensured by social protection measures.

The Russians, apparently, are ready to participate in international competitions again at any moment, but with the condition, he added: “There is a red line: no declarations that condemn the military operation will be signed by athletes or anyone else.”

When it came to speeches from factions, the deputies, taking into account the task set by the president to involve 70% of the population in regular sports, again started talking about money. The idea of ​​Dmitry Svishchev about PPP was developed by representatives of other parties – for example, Vladimir Isakov (KPRF) suggested that state-owned companies abandon the “vanity fair” in the form of multimillion-dollar support for big clubs. The Liberal Democrats insisted on the development of budgetary support, United Russia insisted on additional contributions from bookmakers, and the Social Revolutionary Oleg Nilov recalled the Soviet Sportloto: “And people will buy these tickets – voluntarily, and sometimes forcibly. I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

“Money can not buy happiness! – Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin reassured his colleagues. – It is impossible to reduce the development of physical culture in its pure form to financing. The example of everyone, especially parents for children, will play a key role. And for this, everyone needs to think, especially politicians: does he himself do a lot to promote a healthy lifestyle by his example? The Chairman of the State Duma even suggested that sooner or later the time will come when politics, before seeking the support of voters, “will need to get up on the scales.” “Yes, being determines consciousness, but you and I form consciousness,” Oleg Matytsin agreed. “If we form consciousness as healthy people, patriots, then we will find sources of funding.”

Grigory Leiba