Transcript of the beginning of the meeting:
Vladimir Putin: Mr Uiba, you were instructed to ensure the proper operation of sports medicine and, second, to oversee the project in Dimitrovgrad.
Valentin Uiba: Indeed, Mr Putin, about a year ago Resolution 812 instructed us to ensure biomedical and sanitary aspects of high-performance sports.
Since then we have analysed the efforts of the leading global powers in this field, notably China, Germany and our rivals next summer, Britain and the United States. We also took into consideration the achievements of the Soviet Union and Russia in this field. As a result, we now have a comprehensive programme for modernising medical-sanitary and biomedical support for Russian national teams.
It consists of several blocks; the first of them concerns human resources. We currently have 244 national teams and we need 700 specialists for them, including sport physicians, massage therapists and psychophysiologists. Our task is to provide a sufficient number of trained specialists for the national teams competing in summer sports by 2012.
Vladimir Putin: By 2012, you say? That will be too late.
Valentin Uiba: Well, in 2011... The programme is designed for 2011, 2012 and 2013. We will focus on the summer sports teams in 2011. This is a very demanding programme, as we need to recruit specialists and train them according to our requirements, particularly in modern rehabilitation methods. You cannot expect to get good results without modern technology.
The second block provides for in-depth medical examinations. This year we examined 2,300 athletes. Each of them was examined by more than 20 specialists using a variety of modern rehabilitation and diagnostic technologies and laboratory tests, including genetic ones. This year we started genetic examination of athletes because genetics offers us an opportunity to gauge their potential.
The third and the fourth blocks are probably the most important ones, although everything is important in this programme. They concern biomedical support, which includes, of course, maintaining athletes' health status and helping them perform at their peak level during competition. This can only be accomplished with the use of additional technology, enzymes, vitamins and dietary supplements, which have nothing to do with doping. All countries are doing this, and we should understand the situation correctly. Medical and biological support is, of course, a priority for us.
The plan is as follows: 500 roubles a day per athlete during training sessions and up to 2,000 roubles during high-level competitions, such as European and world championships and the Olympic Games. The most important thing is for an individualised regimen to be prepared for each athlete. Next year we will be working with 8,300 athletes, and each will have an individualised regimen of biomedical support.
The fourth block is the crowning element - scientific monitoring, because each block is connected, one way or another, to it. We have a large number of goals in this block. For example, there are about 40 compensation and rehabilitation technologies. Keeping athletes in peak form during high stress periods is impossible without new technologies; physical and natural abilities alone cannot ensure victory. This is why we are working on the technological aspect. Our goal for 2011 is to approve requisite technologies for summer sports while at the same time providing scientific monitoring and designing new training methods for winter sports. Happily, we have the necessary specialists and huge potential. The most important thing now is to bring all of these elements together, which is what we are doing. We are also honing our training methods and techniques.
Vladimir Putin: What is the foundation of this effort?
Valentin Uiba: We have created a solid foundation. First of all, there are institutes subordinated to the agency. There are ten such institutes working on the things I've mentioned. Also, the Academy of Medical Sciences has two institutes, which we have also incorporated in our programme. The Russian Academy of Sciences, in particular its Institute of Biomedical Studies, has always contributed to this effort, too. For example, they help train astronauts, and the burden on athletes and astronauts is very similar. We have brought together good teams working on these technologies and scientific monitoring of athletes.
Vladimir Putin: Good. What about the nuclear centre?
Valentin Uiba: The Federal Nuclear Technology Centre is a unique establishment. Only the most industrialised countries today have such centres, for example the United States, Germany and Israel. China is working hard on a similar project, but it has not yet completed it. Our centre will be unique because, first, it will have the latest technologies such as the proton centre. It will have a unique proton centre with four proton accelerators, three for general purposes and one for eye tumours.
The second distinguishing feature of the centre is that, in addition to proton therapy, it will also use other unique therapies such as brachytherapy or internal radiotherapy.
We have completed that project this year. It was a very difficult project, the first of its kind in Russia, and we have never had a proton centre project like it. The project was based on foreign centres, which explains the complexity of the design standards. However, the project has reached its final stage. We are now waiting for the conclusions of the state examination and are ready to start the construction and assembly stage on January 1, 2011. We have ordered the construction of a unique 250 MeV proton therapy accelerator.
It is the most modern accelerator in the world, and we have ordered it. It will take two years to build, which means we must create the necessary infrastructure for the installation of the accelerator by 2013 and start using it for medical treatment in 2014. We think we will open the centre in 2014. The proton centre alone will be able to handle about 1,500 or 2,000 people. It should reach design capacity, 4,000 people a year, in 2015.
Vladimir Putin: How much funding do you receive?
Valentin Uiba: The funding has been exceptional, 13.9 billion roubles. The project has been approved by a financial-economic expert review, and is comparable to European centres in these terms.
Vladimir Putin: Who will manufacture the equipment?
Valentin Uiba: The supplier is the Belgian company IBA [Ion Beam Applications S.A.]. American companies manufacture smaller 50 MeV accelerators, but they are not what we need now. To maintain the required standards, we have ordered an accelerator that is unparalleled in the world now. On the other hand, our colleagues from the nuclear energy corporation Rosatom have also shown interest in our project... We are holding medical/technical consultations with them.
We need three such centres in Russia and we have been examining possible sites in Obninsk and Tomsk, [where nuclear research centres could be build] after Dimitrovgrad, if a [political] decision is made. In this case, we'd like to have Russian-made equipment for these proton centres. Our colleagues from Rosatom said they would be ready to manufacture Russian proton therapy accelerators in three years. This would be perfect.
Vladimir Putin: Good.