- At a press conference shortly before the start of the World Cup, you said that you did not want to make any medal forecasts. What was the reason for this?

- With many aspects. We knew in advance that even in the very first days of the championship a negative situation may arise for our athletes. I mean the announcement of the disqualification of Yevgeny Ustyugov and Svetlana Sleptsova, which was announced on the day of the men's sprint race. Accordingly, they understood how heavy emotional pressure could go to the Russian team from other national teams and the media.

- Athletes were also warned about this in advance?

- Not. Even the trainers did not know anything. We didn’t want to load them with unnecessary thoughts ahead of time. In the evening, on the eve of how the announcement was to be made, I gathered the entire coaching staff at the hotel. He warned everyone to be mentally prepared for what would happen. And he said that we have no other choice but to stick together and carry out the tasks that are set before us.

- If such a situation is unlikely to predict the number of medals, then under what conditions is it appropriate to do this?

- It’s good to build medal plans when you are absolutely sure of every component of the result. In biathlon, this cannot be due to many factors. In addition to the condition of the athlete himself, there are skis, cartridges, a rifle, weather, paraffins, and service. And all this should work at the same time. I think we were greatly crippled by the failure that occurred after the New Year. Prior to this, the team perfectly passed the three stages of the World Cup.

- On the first day of performances in Anterselva, not only journalists, but also your colleagues agreed that only two athletes are ready to start in the Russian team: Alexander Loginov and Ekaterina Yurlova-Perkht ...

- I would not say so, if only because the level of Sasha was initially much higher than the rest of our biathletes. Matvey Eliseev is ready for himself very well. Just in the sprint he threw out of the six one penalty circle. Girls in that race, any of the four athletes could be very high. Of course, it's a shame: so many leaders could not stand the weather, there was a chance, but we did not use it.

- Commenting on the performances of Russian biathletes this season, Olympic champion Anatoly Alyabyev noted that from start to start the team looks worse and worse. How do you react when you hear such comments from people in your circle?

- I hardly read what they write on the Internet. And if I do this, then certainly not in such a volume as many others. Negativity is enough for me from all sides. The same situation with the disqualification of our athletes was decided more than one day. She developed over several months. Yes, the team had a long medal-free series, but there was a certain number of fourth places. I already said that I do not consider the results to be completely disastrous.

- Nevertheless, they look rather inconspicuous against the background of the French and Norwegians ...

- So these two countries have generally squeezed everyone out of their pedestals. Look at yesterday's protocol, who is after Loginov: France - France, Norway - Norway. Where are the others? And how can one not be glad that for the first time since 2008 we won a men's personal medal?

- It is known that Loginov was preparing for the World Cup on an individual program. Is this the success of a single leader, or the whole team?

Athletes such as Martin Fourcade, Johannes Boe always work according to an individual plan, even when they train with the rest. So I would not oppose it. I am very pleased that in Anterselva our guys have a lot of support from personal trainers. They help a lot, support.

- Former SBR presidents Mikhail Prokhorov and Alexander Kravtsov constantly emphasized that their business was to ensure the organization of the process, and not to get into the intricacies of preparation. You are a famous biathlete yourself. How much do you feel responsible for everything that happens in the national team?

- I am immersed in all problems, starting from purely technical. Gasoline for buses, skis, paraffins, cartridges ... We just seem to solve it, every time all these questions arise anew.

- And why did you have to negotiate with the president of the Russian Cross-Country Skiing Federation (FLGR) Elena Vyalbe regarding the grinding machine, if there are four of these units in Moscow alone?

- Those that are in Moscow are the so-called cars for tourists. Professional machines - units.

“Undergoing a protracted production crisis, Fischer hired a very old specialist who had long been retired. And he globally and very high quality solved the problem by buying a used machine, some stones necessary for the structure, and installed all this in Ramsau in his own barn ...

- I do not agree that a breakthrough could be associated only with a certain specialist. Fischer is a powerful team. I think the company was able to return to the previous top level precisely thanks to the common efforts.

- You also worked as a team?

- Of course. We acquired completely new paraffins, including those from domestic developments. We prepared new steinslips (variants of ski structures) that were made in Estonia after the sixth stage of the World Cup. Most of the athletes run in Anterselva on these skis.

- What other changes have been made?

- We have a new head of the service team, Alexander Pechersky. He personally worked on a grinding machine, skated skis along with other service providers. The team also increased: now it employs eight people.

- Throughout the season, the coaching staff of the national team is constantly criticized. In particular, because it is impossible to understand: who exactly is responsible for the result ...

- As president, I bear full responsibility for everything that happens both in the team and with it.

- For you in this headquarters is Anatoly Khovantsev the main thing?

- Anatoly Nikolaevich is responsible for the entire methodological part of the work. I personally came to the Ruhpolding training camp, consulted with Khovantsev, supervised every step of the coaches, and delved into all their actions.

- You do not trust Khovantsev and other coaches so much?

- I trust. But I want to understand myself: in what and where do we lose to the French and Norwegians. Such an abyss cannot form in just a half a month. So somewhere, something has broken, broken. In Ridnau, Khovantsev and I gathered all the plans from the coaches, corrected them, arranged the training as we always prepared. Moreover, Khovantsev has accumulated vast experience in bringing to mid-mountain starts.

- Is it fair to say that senior coaches of teams are not entitled to independent decisions?

Not anymore. Actually, most of the young coaches were brought in to help Khovantsev precisely so that they learned how to work as they should. Qualitatively, competently and with an eye to the main start. There is accumulated experience that developed even in the years of the existence of the USSR national team, and it must be used. The World Cup is not over yet, but I think that we are going in normal mode: we managed to raise the team from the bottom on which it was.

- In your opinion, is the team able to give a result?

- Yes, now she is fighting. Of course, Eliseev and Porshnev do not reach Loginov yet in terms of skill level, but they added very much to the World Cup and showed a very solid performance.

- Do you think it is right to prepare a team only for the main start?

- So it turns out that we are judged primarily by the World Championships and the Olympic Games. There were many cases when people successfully performed at the stages of the World Cup, and the main start failed. This does not suit us.

- There is no feeling that at some stage of development we simply lagged behind the rest of the world in methods?

- I would say first of all not about biathlon as a whole, but about leaders. Each team has its own stars, which are used to evaluate the level of the country. I already have very extensive information about where the French and Norwegians work: how they train, what and what they shoot from, what rifles they have, which shields are made on skis. I obtained all this information from confidential sources over the past month and a half. Therefore, now I have a fairly objective picture.

- When do you plan to apply this knowledge?

- We will do it, just not right away. If we take as a basis that the biathlete’s result consists of five components, then at the moment we are inferior to the strongest in each of them. But it is fixable. It is even good that this season gave rise to such a deep internal analysis.

- There is no feeling that in comparison with foreign stars our biathletes are much less independent? They rely not so much on themselves as on how the coach will make the result ...

- There is such, although I will not say that the problem is global. Rather, there are some nuances that I would like to fix. I would say to increase the internal motivation of each athlete to their own result, to improve every little thing. In my opinion, this desire is the most important thing in sports. This quality distinguishes absolutely all leaders. Especially in biathlon, where trifles do not happen in principle.

- If you had in your hands the same financial opportunities that before the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, what would they be directed to?

- To solve technical problems in which we are most lagging behind. For this we need quite serious money, but at the moment we are deprived of the opportunity to spend it - we are paying the IBU for previous debts.

- For Evgeny Ustyugov and Svetlana Sleptsova including?

- No, these stories are not finished yet. We will appeal, but first we’ll have to examine all the documents that we received just now.

- Could you analyze your own work over the past year and say to yourself: “Here, here and here I made a mistake”?

- Yes. But what exactly these errors consisted of, I will not voice. All this will be said inside the RRF, and tough decisions will follow.

- Will they relate to some changes in the coaching staff?

- Yes. A number of solutions are already being seriously worked out.

- What do you expect from the remaining days of the championship?

- Holiday.

- By the way, how do you feel about the idea of ​​holding the World Cup every two years, so that in between biathletes have the opportunity to focus on the drawing of crystal globes and not reduce the level of performances in order to prepare for the main start?

- It’s more interesting for me to see the world championships every year. This is a really big celebration: full stands, broadcasts to the whole world. Why deprive the world of spectacle?