PLUSHENKO-EN POLITICS
Evgeny Pluschenko – I like to be a politician.
Translation of an interview with Evgeny Pluschchenko (EP) by Sergey Vladimirov (SV) a correspondent of the Russian language newspaper “Komsomolskaja Pravda” printed on October 11, 2007
Introduction: When this famous skater was elected to the Legislative Council of the City of St. Petersburg, many people were skeptical of his intentions. But for Evgeny, it turned out to be very serious. He thinks that politics may become the main task of his life. At the same time, he is not finished with the big sports yet. He is planning his return as an amateur and he has big plans for the TV shows that he is involved with.
SV – Evgeny, how do you manage to combine your active life style with the sports?
EP- By careful scheduling. If I am not on tour, I do politics. I am trying to be active and to not miss too many of the sessions of the Legislative Council. Thank God they stopped checking on me if I was in my office or not.
SV – Did they check on you before?
EP – There were a lot of them checking on me if I was there.
SV – There were probably a lot of gossips about your political ambitions.
EP – Oh yes, there was a lot of speculations. I do not even want to remember most of them. Some were saying that I would not participate in the work of the Legislative Council, some said that it was just a PR stunt as to fool my constituents, and that after the election I would transfer my mandate to someone else, and also that I have done it for the money.
All of that was very unpleasant, but I did not pay any attention to it. I have a tremendous amount of real fans, who love me for my creativity and as a person. My main goal now is not to sue anyone or argue in the press, but to work in politics for my constituents and in sports for my fans. I want to be close to my fans and to promote the shows and the figure skating.
SV – So, are you saying that all of the talk about your political work was unfair? Were you invited to participate in the election just as a familiar face?
EP – To be honest with you, the role of a politician is very interesting for me. That was why I agreed to participate in the elections and that was why I joined the Central Committee of the Fair Russia Party.
SV – Politics are of interest to many people, but not many actually go into it, especially if they distinguished themselves in some other areas, as you did.
EP – Let me make it clear that I went in to politics intentionally because I started thinking about the future. I always wanted to be able to influence our sport and to be able to help those who left the sport, like I did. Many of them have tragic fates. I have tremendous sports experience – 20 years, it is not a joke. I think that my opinion may be very useful to others. At some point I would not be able to skate any more. One has to think about the future in advance and to make sure that the future would be good.
SV – It is clear that sports are important to you, but politics is much broader than just sports problems.
EP – It is true. Politics appear to be much more complicated than I thought. It has its nuances that I am not familiar with. But I am thankful to my friends who are helping me in this new activity; they show me how the system works and explain everything to me. And besides, my mother likes what I am doing. When I joined the Fair Russia party she was very happy, although she was always suspicious of the political parties and of politics in general.
SV – What are your personal plans concerning sports? Will your old injuries prevent you from coming back?
EP – My wounds are my paybacks for the past 20 years in big sports. It happened that I came to figure skating as a child and I lifted high my professional level at a very early age by conducting complex three and four turn jumps. But I am not finished with sports. After such a long break it would be very difficult to come back. To come back is usually ten times more difficult that just to begin. The main thing is that I would like to try my strengths. But I will never be content with second place, for me it will be a real defeat. I used to be a leader, defending the honor of my country. I started practicing. Last summer I had an operation. Now I am practicing double and triple jumps and I am preparing a new program.
SV – What are your plans beside sports?
EP – I am working on new programs. It is not that simple. I want to surprise and to amaze everyone. When I select the music, I will start looking for choreographers. It is possible that I will invite someone from Broadway, or I will select some of the great Russian ballet masters. I am catastrophically short of time, but nevertheless I do not want to drop either the figure skating, nor the Legislative Council.
SV – Will you write about your political career in the second part of your autobiography?
EP – The idea about writing my autobiography was hatching for a long time. I wanted to write for the young people, who were also in a difficult situation as I was. I hope that no one would be able to say that Pluschenko had everything easy. So far I released the first part, because I could not write about many things like my TV shows, due to contract limitations. It is natural that my political work at the Fair Russia party became an important part of my life and I will write about it in the second part of my book.
Translation of an interview with Evgeny Pluschchenko (EP) by Sergey Vladimirov (SV) a correspondent of the Russian language newspaper “Komsomolskaja Pravda” printed on October 11, 2007
Introduction: When this famous skater was elected to the Legislative Council of the City of St. Petersburg, many people were skeptical of his intentions. But for Evgeny, it turned out to be very serious. He thinks that politics may become the main task of his life. At the same time, he is not finished with the big sports yet. He is planning his return as an amateur and he has big plans for the TV shows that he is involved with.
SV – Evgeny, how do you manage to combine your active life style with the sports?
EP- By careful scheduling. If I am not on tour, I do politics. I am trying to be active and to not miss too many of the sessions of the Legislative Council. Thank God they stopped checking on me if I was in my office or not.
SV – Did they check on you before?
EP – There were a lot of them checking on me if I was there.
SV – There were probably a lot of gossips about your political ambitions.
EP – Oh yes, there was a lot of speculations. I do not even want to remember most of them. Some were saying that I would not participate in the work of the Legislative Council, some said that it was just a PR stunt as to fool my constituents, and that after the election I would transfer my mandate to someone else, and also that I have done it for the money.
All of that was very unpleasant, but I did not pay any attention to it. I have a tremendous amount of real fans, who love me for my creativity and as a person. My main goal now is not to sue anyone or argue in the press, but to work in politics for my constituents and in sports for my fans. I want to be close to my fans and to promote the shows and the figure skating.
SV – So, are you saying that all of the talk about your political work was unfair? Were you invited to participate in the election just as a familiar face?
EP – To be honest with you, the role of a politician is very interesting for me. That was why I agreed to participate in the elections and that was why I joined the Central Committee of the Fair Russia Party.
SV – Politics are of interest to many people, but not many actually go into it, especially if they distinguished themselves in some other areas, as you did.
EP – Let me make it clear that I went in to politics intentionally because I started thinking about the future. I always wanted to be able to influence our sport and to be able to help those who left the sport, like I did. Many of them have tragic fates. I have tremendous sports experience – 20 years, it is not a joke. I think that my opinion may be very useful to others. At some point I would not be able to skate any more. One has to think about the future in advance and to make sure that the future would be good.
SV – It is clear that sports are important to you, but politics is much broader than just sports problems.
EP – It is true. Politics appear to be much more complicated than I thought. It has its nuances that I am not familiar with. But I am thankful to my friends who are helping me in this new activity; they show me how the system works and explain everything to me. And besides, my mother likes what I am doing. When I joined the Fair Russia party she was very happy, although she was always suspicious of the political parties and of politics in general.
SV – What are your personal plans concerning sports? Will your old injuries prevent you from coming back?
EP – My wounds are my paybacks for the past 20 years in big sports. It happened that I came to figure skating as a child and I lifted high my professional level at a very early age by conducting complex three and four turn jumps. But I am not finished with sports. After such a long break it would be very difficult to come back. To come back is usually ten times more difficult that just to begin. The main thing is that I would like to try my strengths. But I will never be content with second place, for me it will be a real defeat. I used to be a leader, defending the honor of my country. I started practicing. Last summer I had an operation. Now I am practicing double and triple jumps and I am preparing a new program.
SV – What are your plans beside sports?
EP – I am working on new programs. It is not that simple. I want to surprise and to amaze everyone. When I select the music, I will start looking for choreographers. It is possible that I will invite someone from Broadway, or I will select some of the great Russian ballet masters. I am catastrophically short of time, but nevertheless I do not want to drop either the figure skating, nor the Legislative Council.
SV – Will you write about your political career in the second part of your autobiography?
EP – The idea about writing my autobiography was hatching for a long time. I wanted to write for the young people, who were also in a difficult situation as I was. I hope that no one would be able to say that Pluschenko had everything easy. So far I released the first part, because I could not write about many things like my TV shows, due to contract limitations. It is natural that my political work at the Fair Russia party became an important part of my life and I will write about it in the second part of my book.
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