Recent Updates
News:
11/11 Rest of Semin Interview...More…
11/9 Boudreau on OV's Slump...More…
11/9 OV Interview after Rangers Game...More…
11/5 Entire Semin Interview!...More…
11/3 The Dzagoev Dialectic...More…
10/31 Fedorov Interview...More…
10/30 Semin and Kozlov...More…
10/20 Yet Another OV Q&A...More…
10/20 Yet Another Semin Q&A...More…
10/17 Short OV Interview...More…
10/17 Feds Interview...More…
10/14 Another Semin Interview...More…
9/18 Semin Interview...More…
9/16 Simeon Varlamov in America...More…
9/5 Morozov and the KHL...More…
9/3 OV behind bars?...More…
8/17 OV on Russian Game show...More…
8/12 OV in Beijing...More…
8/4 OV is in even better shape than last year...More…
7/28 Jagr and OV talk...More…
7/27 Kapitanov--OV doesn't even take vitamins...More…
7/25 OV can't get to his seat...More…
7/22 OV parties in Moscow...More…
7/23 OV Going to Beijing...More…
6-3 OV the Superman...More…
5-27 Don Cherry loves OV...More…
5-30 OV interview in Pittsburgh..More…
5-13 Feds Interview...More…
5-12 OV Interview...More…
Odious Don Koharski killed us More…
Blog:
10 April 2008-The Playoffs are just around the corner More…
25 July 2008
Andrey Kartashov
And Putin Didn't Even Come
In the first game of the "Mechel" Cup for basketball, the Russian national team beat Latvia by a score of 84-63. In spite of his stated intentions, Vladimir Putin did not attend the game.
The international pre-Olympic basketball tournament "Mechel Cup" received an unexpected political subtext prior to the start of the games. On the eve of the tournament at a conference on raw ferrous metals, Prime Minister and former Russian President Vladimir Putin severely criticized the marketing policy of the mining giant "Mechel"- the general sponsor of the tournament. The brunt of Putin's criticism was directed towards the fact that in the first quarter of 2008, the company sold their product abroad at a price two times lower than on the domestic market, thereby lowering their tax liability. But the Prime Minister still expressed his desire to personally come to the CSKA arena and root for the Russian players in a tournament bearing the name of a company which so unexpectedly fell into disgrace with the authorities.
At the arena entrance your correspondent for gazeta.ru saw a large cadre of security guards designated for VIPs. While the guests were still on the street they were met by the sounds of an orchestra.
One of the security guards did not deny the possibility of the arrival of Putin and confirmed that the Russian national game was to be attended by the former minister of defense, now first Vice-Premier and great fan of CSKA, Sergei Ivanov
In the stands you could see a great number of well-known individuals. Thus, defender Dmitri Khvostov and other players like him, released from the Olympic team, came to the end of the game of Serbia-Ukraine (90-56), and with sad eyes watched the events on the platform.
The ladies of the Russian national basketball team, who just last night lost to team Spain in the finals of the VTB Cup, were out in full force in the stands. The ladies lively discussed the possible arrival of Putin to CSKA arena and came to the conclusion that the Prime Minister would hardly come to the basketball game. "Yea, did you hear what he said about Mechel yesterday? Just because of that he won't come here today.."
And now the well known hockey player, star of the NHL and world champion Alexander Ovechkin, who has come to the game in the company of a lovely blonde, is not able to immediately get to his seat. Strict security has not allowed the well known player through the nearest entrance, and he has been forced to walk through the entire arena to get to his seat. And it is already occupied!
"Yea, sit anywhere you can find a spot" one of the organizers tells Ovechkin.
The highest level VIPs in the hall waiting for Putin and Ivanov were the President of the RSF (Russian Football Federation) and Minister of Sports, Vitaly Mutko. He didn't talk about football fields, but rather basketball and said that this was quite unusual.
A solemn ceremony preceded the game between the Russian and Latvian teams. First, the president of FIBA awarded Andrey Kirilenko with the prize for best player in Europe. Then, accompanied to a remixed version of the Russian folk song Kalinka, the lineup for the men's and women's Olympic basketball teams was announced. After that, all the Russian players received a birch broom, a jar of jam, a string of bagels, and a down pillow. Members of the male team received a cap, and the ladies received an embroidered scarf.
At this point Ovechkin passionately embraced his companion, and the players on the Latvian team openly yawned.
Some just as sleepy Latvians stepped onto the court and immediately were down 0-6. The Russians continued to increase their advantage and with only two minutes until the end of the first period the Balts suddenly added some points and evened the score--then took a slight lead.
But in the second quarter the home team nonetheless got it together and added some points. At halftime the Russian team left the court with the score 37-29.
However, one can't say that the Russian team played exciting basketball. The game appeared quite boring, so much so that half of the VIPs slyly left the stands.
By this time all doubts about the arrival of Putin were definitely dissipated. Moreover, even Sergei Ivanov had not even arrived.
As concerns the game, the Russians easily won. The third quarter was the decisive one, which David Blatta's "wards" won by +12. The most productive player of the game was the new standard bearer of Team Russia, Andrey Kirilenko.
Click on icon above for original story in Russian at gazeta.ru