Hello Pavel! How did you come to armwrestling?

- Hello! I've been in armwrestling since 1998. In 2004 I completed the standard Master of Sports of the Russian Federation. Perhaps, I’ll stop on this competitive component, because we can find more than one hundred athletes who are more worthy of telling about titles. In 2006 I went headlong into the development of armwrestling which was abandoned at that time in our region. I started almost from scratch: looked for basements for training; got old iron; we made racks, benches, trainers; invited and coached people; held competitions wherever I could. I traveled and worked as a referee, helped in organizing competitions in other regions. So at work 13 years have passed. Much has been done, but much more to come.

Why did you decide to open an alternative federation?

- The existence of a valid accredited federation simply ceased to be expedient. Introductory and annual fees, requisitions for the design of T-shirts and logos are only common expenses that went to ordinary athletes. And those who want to go to serious competitions, there are already electronic passports, insurance, a lot of different applications. It is not surprising that there were less and less people willing to go until they were completely gone. On the other hand, this is “hand-twisting” by the Ministry of Sports. This is accreditation, entire volumes of reports, all this with almost no funding (1900 rubles for the regional championship, I think it is impossible to call financing). An important factor was the lack of opportunity to receive sports classes (according to new orders of the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation and court decisions). And the following question appeared: why then do we need such a federation?

And why the National Federation? Why didn't you stop at your region?

- We want to give armwrestlers in all regions a simple, clear and free tool for the development of our sport. I know very well in what state armwrestling is most regions. Under the existing conditions there can be no talk of any development. Armwrestling as a sport should become more accessible. Available not only for top athletes and not only in rich regions.

We already have documents for sports classes, our web site of the federation is coming. We have negotiations with sponsors in various regions. In the fall, we will start holding tournaments and assign titles. Anticipating angry remarks saying that titles will be worthless, I can promise not to allow this. Titles will be assigned only at the appropriate level of tournaments.

The difference from the Russian Artmwrestling Federation is fundamentally - we do not depend on the policy of state sports structures. We determine the vector of our development, anti-doping policy, assignment of sports titles and so on by ourselves. We do not need accreditation, we do not earn money - we develop armwrestling. Just developing armwrestling ...

I appeal to athletes and organizers in all regions - let's raise armwrestling together. I am glad to meet new people. We need people who love our sport and are ready to develop it in their region, city, village. People are the main resource in any business.

Do you plan to cooperate with the URPA rating?

- A few days ago, over the phone, Igor Mazurenko agreed to cooperate. It is too early to disclose details, there is still a lot of work ahead. But I can say that despite the fact that we were not familiar with Igor, we immediately found a common language and was talking for about an hour. This is another example of how people who love one thing, from different countries, cities, scale of work, age and other things can be united for common work. I hope that already this year I will be able to come to the Zloty Tur and meet Igor personally.