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On October 10, 2017, a regular creative meeting has been held at the All-Russian Scientific-Research Institute of Aviation Materials within the project “Synkletos at VIAM”. The guest of the event has become Alexander A. Karelin, three times Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, Hero of the Russian Federation, State Duma Deputy.

Alexander Karelin is the strongest fighter of the twentieth century, personifying sport power of our country. He has become three times Olympic champion; he has won nine times in world championships and twelve times at the European forums. He carried out banner of the Russian team at three Olympic Games.

Glorious sport career was replaced by fruitful work in the State Duma, where Alexander Karelin is deputy of 5 convocations due to vast experience, dedication, energy and charisma.

Opening the meeting, Evgeny N. Kablov, Academician of RAS, Director General of VIAM noted the invaluable contribution of Alexander Karelin to development of sport and his brilliant victory on wrestling mat. “It is a great honor for us to receive sportsman, public figure and Politian, marked with the highest state awards. The opportunity to communicate, to ask questions to Alexander Karelin is a great piece of luck for our youth, who can hear about life experience of our guest straight from the horse`s mouth”, - leadership of VIAM pointed out.

“I do not consider myself the best fighter of modern times, - Alexander Karelin said. – As for me, the representative of nation of winners, the best fighter is the generalized character of our Russian fighter: Ivan Poddubny, Ivan Yarygin, Nikolay Balboshin, Valery Rezantsev and many others. We have formed the great school of fight with strict criteria for those, who want to become winners”.

About the difference between sport and politics: “As a sportsman I felt personal responsibility and striving to win. Politics, if I may say so, is the collective creative work. Here the results depend on the team of like-minded persons. We strive to make our state strong and prosperous.

About his trips around the country and development of sport in regions: “For the last half-year I have been to Rostov, Belgorod, Sankt-Petersburg, Magadan, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Vladikavkaz, Grozny, Stavropol, Kostroma…And the list is not full. I can tell you that everywhere is necessary to develop infrastructure in order to have opportunity to bring children to sport. Our state is dealing with this issue, but taking into account the geography of our country it will take a significant amount of time”.

About patriotism in Russian sport: “Patriotism has not gone away from our sport and I often see sportsmen for whom money is far from an end in itself. Although, I don`t see anything wrong in getting material consideration. But I want to emphasize: the person who is initially focused on receiving money and whose interests are purely mercantile – he will never demonstrate true skills and fail short of expectations”.

Advice to young parents from Alexander Karelin: “You should not postpone the birth of children “for the future”. It must be remembered that the family is foundation, breeding ground, where personality is formed. Therefore there is only one advice: you need to give birth and the most important thing is to bring up your children. As our classic Sergey Mikhalkov said: “Today they are children, tomorrow – people.”

About nostalgia for the Soviet Union: ‘Those who survived the breakdown of the great country, remember about it and bear. But it happened, so you don`t sprinkle ashes upon your head. We just need to build a reasonable neighborhood with the countries which belonged to USSR. We should remember about our common history in order to prevent from growing sprouts of nationalism”.

At the end of the meeting, Evgeny Kablov presented the guest an anniversary edition “VIAM is nowadays. 2012 -2017” and a book “Robert Bartini”. In turn, Director General of VIAM was presented a book about the Great Russian fighter Ivan Poddubny.