Official website of the President of Russia

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President of Russia Dmitry Medvedev: Good afternoon dear friends!

I can tell you honestly that I have wanted to meet with you and thank you for your excellent performances for a long time. We weren’t able to meet right after the Olympics but we can now.

I will not enumerate all that you've done recently in the sport as everyone knows it already: I am referring to the victories in the Federation Cup, the Davis Cup, and the brilliant performances by our girls in the Olympics. And I want to congratulate Igor Kunitsyn on his latest victory – he won the Kremlin Cup just yesterday.

You have done so well! Our country is very fond of you — people want to be your equals and you have really raised the bar very high in Russian tennis.

Of course I must say some words of thanks to our head coach [Shamil Tarpishchev, head coach of the national teams and President of the Russian Tennis Federation]. I think that if you did not participate in the fate of our team as you do, then these successes would not exist. Therefore once again I warmly congratulate you and thank you for what you have done and are doing. Once again let me repeat that you are admired by the entire Russian Federation.

Thank you.

Olympic Champion In Beijing Elena Dementieva: Dmitry Anatolyevich,

on behalf of all of us here I would like to, first of all, thank you for your kind words and congratulations following Russia’s triumph at the Olympic Games and our victories at the world championships. To our great regret we were not able to attend …

Dmitry Medvedev: And to mine as well.

Elena Dementieva: … your meeting with the other Olympic athletes, and we are very pleased that you found the time to meet with us today. I am joined by all those present in thanking you for your attention to and support for Russian sports and if I may give you a small souvenir: here is the tennis racket which won at the Olympic Games.

Dmitry Medvedev: Thank you very much.

Elena Dementieva: Thank you.