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The forum, Russia’s largest venue for discussing key issues and prospects for physical fitness and sports, was established by Presidential Executive Order on July 27, 2009. In 2024, Ufa hosts the forum on October 17–19.

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Remarks by the President

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Friends,

I am delighted to welcome the participants and guests, including our international colleagues and partners, of the Russia – Country of Sports International Forum.

We have come together in Ufa, the capital of Bashkortostan, which is a one-of-a-kind region of our multi-ethnic Fatherland.

This year marks the 450^th anniversary of Ufa. My best wishes to the residents of the city and the rest of the republic on the occasion of this remarkable date. I would also like to thank you for the enormous contribution to the development of our vast country, including its military, labour, scientific, and sporting achievements.

I am confident that the forum participants will appreciate famous Bashkortostan's hospitality and will enjoy learning about the history, unique cultural heritage, and sports traditions, as well as modern achievements of this remarkable ancient region.

Bashkortostan was rightly picked as a host for the Sports: A Comprehensive Look into the Future forum, a theme that conveys a sense of urgency.

Indeed, the prospects and the future of the global sports need to be discussed in an in-depth and thorough manner. There is need for a joint quest in order to find answers to the question of how to overcome the daunting challenges of our time, to prevent the international sports community from splitting, and to make sports free from crude politicisation, double standards, distorted rules, and degrading discrimination, including on the grounds of nationality and ethnicity.

Clearly, there are attempts to turn the international sports and the Olympic movement into a geopolitical playground, rather than an arena for fair competition, a place for promoting a destructive neo-liberal agenda, unnatural norms, pseudo-freedoms, as well as rejecting traditional values that have been held by the vast majority of countries and peoples for centuries, and even millennia.

I am certain that the global majority, just like Russia, chooses a different path to follow that is based on equality, openness, and mutual respect in all areas of cooperation, including the economy, culture, science, education, healthcare, trade, politics, and, of course, sports.

Drawing on our extensive experience of hosting large-scale sporting events, including the Winter Olympics in Sochi and the FIFA World Cup, we are promoting new cooperation formats based on the true ideals and principles of sports such as solidarity, fairness, the celebration of human spirit, strength, intellect, as well as generosity of spirit and respect for the dignity of our competitors, strong competitors. We have respect for all our competitors.

You may remember that this year Russia presented to the world a unique tournament as part of the promising Phygital movement – the Games of the Future. The BRICS Games were also successfully held this summer. We are intensifying our work in sports with our partners in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

I want to emphasise that the initiatives proposed by Russia are additional opportunities for athletes to showcase their skills in the arenas where sport is, above all, beyond politics, the way we value and love it – free and fair, imbued with the spirit of friendship and unity.

This is exactly the atmosphere that prevails at the Forum Russia – a Sports Power. It is designed to strengthen international cooperation, ties, contacts, it offers an opportunity to frankly communicate on various, sometimes very acute topics, to exchange the best practices of sports training, methods of scientific support of amateur and professional sports and, of course, ideas to promote the culture of a healthy lifestyle.

We in Russia see sports as a key way to achieving national development goals, a powerful resource capable of raising the quality of people’s lives, opening new horizons for their self-fulfillment, making them believe in themselves both in sports and in their life in general.

Our basic priorities include creating the broadest possible opportunities for physical training and sports. Over the last 10 years, more than one trillion rubles have been invested in creating affordable sports facilities in all regions of Russia.

About 85,000 facilities have been built using public and private funds. Additionally, over 2,000 more will be built by 2030. The federal budget alone will allocate about 65 billion rubles for this purpose. Russian business has also earmarked substantial funds to this end.

In this respect, I would like to add that every year more and more of our companies and entrepreneurs invest in the upgrade and construction of new sports centres and grounds, not only in the regions where they work, but also across the country. They become co-organisers of competitions, take patronage over clubs and sports schools, and implement their own corporate sports support programmes.

The pooling of efforts, resources and initiatives of authorities and non-governmental organisations, private entrepreneurs and philanthropists in Russia covers all areas of sport: from children's and youth and mass sports to professional and adaptive sports.

Paying attention to people with disabilities, caring for their needs, and creating conditions for increasing their social activity are particularly important challenges. The role of sport in their fulfilling is as invaluable as the example of our glorious and courageous Paralympians. Despite all the obstacles and limitations, tough psychological pressure at the recent games in Paris, they once again confirmed the leading positions of Russian sport and proved once again that our athletes are real, genuine leaders and will not yield to anyone in terms of perseverance, fortitude and character.

Let’s greet them once again (Applause).

Thank you. A bit later I will have the great pleasure to present them with the deserved state awards and pride in the Moscow Kremlin.

Friends,

In conclusion, I want to wish all the forum participants successful and fruitful work and, of course, the best and most memorable impressions of seeing Ufa and our beautiful Bashkiria.

Thank you for your attention.