ELastic band for vertical power

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Last Wednesday there was a very important event for our sport. According to Reuter, an official of the Russian Olympic Committee said that his boss, Leonid Tyagachev, recalled how he himself called him about a month ago ...

Last Wednesday there was a very important event for our sport. According to Reuter, a Russian Olympic Committee official said his boss, Leonid Tyagachev, recalled receiving a phone call from President Putin himself about a month ago. I watched the European Football Championship, with uncharacteristic speed I found the phone of the Olympic chief and asked him to “tell the national team players to sing the words of the national anthem during its performance, and not chew gum.”

Tyagachev, the head of the Olympic ideals, immediately called the head of football, Koloskov, and conveyed that the head of the Constitution, Putin, wanted his subordinates in Portugal to sing, not chew. Whoever remembers those bitter days will confirm that, contrary to the directive issued through two instances, our masters chewed until the very end. Putin was right: if they also sang, the championship would have been more fun, more fun.

Days passed. According to modern times, the hand is not washed for a week after the sovereign handshake, and our sports leaders kept the sacred message in themselves for a month. But on the eve of the departure of Russian athletes to Athens, they considered it appropriate to remind everyone what you can play if you don’t sing on time.

The political wisdom of the leader and his concern for the people are always manifested in small things. The sovereign predecessors of Vladimir Vladimirovich also took care and were also interested in rubber bands.

In the memoirs of the People's Commissar of Ammunition Vannikov, a meeting of the Politburo dedicated to the start of the production of condoms in the USSR is described. Like all the best in those terrible years, they were made for the army. Falling asleep in a monotonous routine, Zhdanov started up when he heard the number of achievements - the rubber holds 4 kg / cm: “Is this a lot or a little?”. “Comrades, I responsibly declare that no man has ever provided such pressure!” said the portly speaker from the gas-mask factory.

And in the seventies, the Pravda newspaper published the decision of the Politburo meeting on the problems of tailoring the left side of men's suits on the production lines. There was no way to properly sew in one important elastic band. And the costumes for the people warped. And this problem was also successfully solved!

Stalin himself might not have known the words of the anthem, but the people's commissars sang it, did not stumble. Brezhnev has an elm tongue in the bridge on the first line. But millions of communists confidently did it with any bridges. And what if we have the main song confidently knows one president? I remember that in the program “To the Barrier” deputy Rogozin also demanded that everyone put a hand on their heart, shed a tear and sing it. The evil Solovyov immediately demanded that he prove his love for the Motherland in the cell. The leader of the patriots shamefully surrendered - he does not know the words! What kind of zeal and victories can we expect from the gray state factions and other officials?

The country must vote. Will our young and strong president be able to solve the gum problem in the light of the changes that have taken place in the country? Is not a fact. After all, officials, who themselves do not remember a single line, are not the first to try to force the players of the national football team to sing the Russian anthem. Before the matches of the World Cup in 2002, they were given leaflets with the text of the anthem. And the president's personal call at night is no joke.

Apparently, the foreigners who sing their hymns have completely different motives.

FIRST PERSON

Head of the Russian Olympic Committee Leonid TYAGACHEV:

- This story can really be called "chewing gum" ... There was no instruction from the president to me personally. Where did the "witness" of the alleged conversation come from, I also do not understand.

Although the behavior of some of our football players at solemn ceremonies during the sounding of our anthem seems to me, at least, wrong. It is Americans who can chew gum exclusively mechanically, regardless of the situation: whether it is solemn or tragic. But it's not for us to judge them.

We have always treated state symbols with respect. Moreover, no one in this regard can order the athletes: freeze, do not move, shed tears and sing the anthem to the music of Alexandrov and the words of Mikhalkov. Everything comes from the soul. Now in big sport a good tradition is being developed in relation to the anthem. The children are learning the words themselves. Leaflets with the anthem hang on the walls in the Olympic training bases. Athletes can read its text once again in between workouts.

Again, I repeat, everything here comes from the heart. Remember how it was 20-30 years ago. The tears of Irina Rodnina will forever remain in the hearts of sports fans.

Before the trip to Athens, no one gave any instructions to anyone about the behavior during the performance of the anthem and will not give it. For our part, our team will do everything to make his melody sound as often as possible. And we hope that our fans at the TV screens will sing along with us.