Transcript of the start of the meeting:

Vladimir Putin: Hi guys,

First of all, let me congratulate you on your victory in major competitions. I think that these student games are major competitions. These are probably the biggest competitions, in terms of the number of participants, held in Russia for boys and girls.

All in all, more than two million people took part in these games. If you won them, it means that you prepared better, that you displayed character and persistence, and that you have talent. For this, I congratulate you.

I would like to wish the best not only to you but also to your schoolmasters, coaches, and PE teachers at school. You competed in 16 winter sports, didn't you? Out of these, 14 sports are part of the Olympic programme. Athletes will compete in 14 sports at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.

I hope that many of those present will take part in these Games. At any rate, you have every opportunity for that.

I wish you success.

This is all I wanted to say in the beginning. Let us switch to questions and answers if you have any. Please, go ahead.

I suppose that you have already started talking with our celebrated athletes. I would like to thank them for finding the time to come here. Please, don't be shy! Tell me, at least, where you competed and what you won.

Lyudmila Belyakova, captain of the Moscow women's ice hockey team: I'm the captain of the Moscow women's ice hockey team. I would like to emphasize that little attention is paid to the many problems facing women's hockey. The girls on the Russian team currently occupy from the 5th to the 8th places in the world championship, and only five teams compete in the national championship. All teams have legionnaires, the main heroes. Moscow does not have a female team now. Now there are two or three fives of good girls from different regions. It would be good if all these girls formed one team and took part in tournaments in North America for the sake of experience.

Vladimir Putin: Lyuda, how many years have you competed in hockey?

Lyudmila Belyakova: For seven years.

Vladimir Putin: For how long have we cultivated women's hockey? This is ice hockey, isn't it? So, how many years have we had it?

Lyudmila Belyakova: Not for a very long time. We do not have the experience that players have in remote countries.

Vladimir Putin: I think that women and girls will increasingly take part in what were once considered strictly male sports. I believe this process is inevitable and should be supported. However, perhaps because women and girls started playing ice hockey only recently, they have not yet made much progress. Moreover, ice hockey is not yet an Olympic event.

Lyudmila Belyakova: It has already become an Olympic event.

Vladimir Putin: Has it? Are women taking part in it already? Or ours have not qualified? We don't consider it Olympic because our players have not qualified for participation.

It goes without saying that having become an Olympic event, ice hockey will develop in Russia, too. I cannot predict how fast we will reach the top level, but it is clear that our rich experience in men's hockey will be transferred to women's hockey. It is hard to say when this will happen, but this will happen by all means.

Lyudmila Belyakova: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: Please, tell me who won where, and what plans do you have for the near future. Don't be shy, go ahead!

Alexander Vorobyev: My name is Alexander Vorobyev. I compete in speed skating.

Vladimir Putin: Speed skating?

Alexander Vorobyev: Yes, speed skating. I won the 500 meters and 1,500 meters. We were also second in the team race.

Vladimir Putin: What team do you play for? Where are you from?

Alexander Vorobyev: I'm from Moscow.

Vladimir Putin: Did your team take part in the Games?

Alexander Vorobyev: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: Are these competitions held in any of the regions?

Vitaly Mutko: National competitions are held in the federal regions. Moscow had its own team, while the Moscow Region represented the Central Region. Most teams are from federal regions. We have a palace in Kolomna for speed skating, and another one in Moscow. They are both excellent, and we are relying on them. We would like these guys by the Olympics in Sochi to...

Vladimir Putin: (addressing Alexander Vorobyev) How old are you?

Alexander Vorobyev: I'm 17.

Vladimir Putin: So, in five years you will be 22. This is the perfect age for participating in the Olympics. Are you planning to compete? Will you practice to get ready to take part in the Olympic Games?

Alexander Vorobyev: Yes, I am.

Vladimir Putin: You have every opportunity for this. Only recently, we held Russian championships abroad because we did not have quality ice. Now we have it, so you have a place for training, and I wish you every success.

Mikhail Tikhonov: My name is Mikhail Tikhonov. I'm the captain of the Moscow hockey team. I'd like to ask you a question. What is your favourite hockey team?

Vladimir Putin: The Russian team. I think they are doing rather well. What do you think about their performance at the world championship?

Mikhail Tikhonov: I think they have done really well. They have made it to semifinals.

Vladimir Putin: I think they are showing character and the will to win.

Mikhail Tikhonov: I think we'll win the world championship again.

Yulia Motorina: Mr Putin, my name is Yulia Motorina. I compete in the biathlon. What is your favourite winter sport?

Vladimir Putin: Skiing and hockey.

Yulia Motorina: What do you think about biathlon?

Vladimir Putin: I think it is a beautiful sport. It seems that in the last few years it has truly become a spectator sport.

Yulia Motorina: It has matched soccer in this respect.

Vladimir Putin: Yes, it has practically matched it in the number of fans. It has become a spectator sport, indeed. It requires many skills. Athletes must be able to ski and shoot well. This is very interesting. Organizers, and the sportsmen themselves, manage to make it intriguing, and this always underlies any competition. It is an interesting sport. It has become very interesting, and we have been quite successful in it, which always attracts attention. International success by our athletes invariably helps promote sports on the domestic scene.

Thus, I hope that you will also make biathlon more popular.

Alexander Merzlyakov: I'm from Perm. I have a question. I'll soon reach the draft age. Is it possible to go into professional sports during army service?

Vladimir Putin: Well, I must admit that the Armed Forces have not paid enough attention to sports up to this point. There are many reasons for that, but we won't analyze them now. However, this is a fact. Few conscripts can cope with sports tests for army servicemen. This is the best evidence of the need to develop sports in the army. For this reason, we will certainly develop sports in the army on a mass scale. It will be specialized, but on a mass scale. At the same time, we'll create the conditions for those who would like to go into the sports of records.

Recently, there was a discussion about the position of the Defence Ministry and the Armed Forces on this issue. I agree with the heads of the Defence Ministry that the system of sports training and sports achievements in the army has been functioning for a long time. It has been good in some respects, but has already become outdated.

Many sports facilities are only registered as the property of the Armed Forces. The latter have to spend some money on their upkeep, although the link with those in charge of them has long been lost. It is necessary to make up an inventory and determine what should be registered as the property of the Defence Ministry and the Armed Forces.

Quite recently, we discussed this issue with the heads of the Defence Ministry and the Ministry of Sports and Tourism, and came to the conclusion that the sports of records should remain in the Armed Forces. The Central Sports Army Club (CSAC) will be preserved. This applies both to players and coaches. But it will be preserved in a renewed form, with adequate funding and internal structure.

This means that all those who come to serve in the Armed Forces will have an opportunity to play in this club.

Vladimir Putin: The most talented athletes showing good results will have an opportunity to compete in their favourite sports, especially where they produce real results and defend the national colours in international arenas. We will resolve this question with the Defence Ministry just as we resolve it for talented musicians, or those who have devoted their lives to the Church. This is not a complicated issue. It concerns a few individuals rather than millions of people. It can easily be resolved.

Serokhvostova: Mr Putin, what is more difficult -- being President or Prime Minister?

Vladimir Putin: Everyone has his own job. It is just necessary to have a conscientious attitude toward it, and there will be no problem. Do you like what you are doing?

Serokhvostova: Sure.

Vladimir Putin: There you go. It goes without saying that the pressure is always there. I hope that training and especially competitions are accompanied by emotional and physical pressure. It is impossible to do without it, but if you are doing something you enjoy, it can be pleasant nonetheless, particularly if you have success. Have you had success?

Serokhvostova: Yes, I have.

Vladimir Putin: Congratulations.

Serokhvostova: Thank you.

Vladimir Putin: You are welcome. Come on, don't be shy. You are champions, after all! Have you come from different regions?

Vitaly Mutko: Yes, they have. There are athletes from the Krasnodar Territory and from the Khabarovsk Territory.

Vladimir Putin: Mr Mutko. These guys have achieved certain results. They have demonstrated that they can show such results not only now, but apparently in the future as well. How are you planning to work with the most talented young people in light of the competitions that we have mentioned - in 2014 and subsequent years?

Vitaly Mutko: Many of them are members of junior teams or are about to join them or become captains of teams. We are now virtually finished with preparations for 2014. We will have an experimental team, for which we will create all the necessary conditions.

We have decided to seriously increase the funding for training. Yesterday, we talked at length with our prize winners, and asked everyone to describe in writing all problems they have with training at home.

Vladimir Putin: We have introduced a system of grants for talented young athletes.

Vitaly Mutko: We would like to ask you to support our appeal. The national project Education provides for grants to gifted young people who have achieved results in different spheres. They have won different contests. In our case, we are talking about the winners of our major sports festival, the Student Games. We would like the winners and prize-takers of these games to receive these grants as well. They are quite important for our young people. We have about 60 winners, and another 200 who won the second and third prizes. All in all, there are about 300. If we could receive your support and grants, we could give them a material incentive for victories.

Vladimir Putin: Let's do that. It's settled.

Vitaly Mutko: Thanks.

Vladimir Putin (addressing Kovalenko): What are you doing?

Kovalenko: Snowboarding.

Vladimir Putin: For some reason, when I see snowboarders, they are always sitting on their butts rather than moving. But in all seriousness, snowboarding is very impressive. How long have you been doing this?

Kovalenko: For five or six years.

Vladimir Putin: Where?

Kovalenko: In Khanty-Mansiysk.

Vladimir Putin: Is there a hill there?

Kovalenko: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: Artificial?

Kovalenko: No.

Vladimir Putin: You've made a track, right?

Kovalenko: Yes.

Vladimir Putin: You also have skiing there, don't you?

Kovalenko: Yes, both skiing and biathlon.

Vladimir Putin: You have a good biathlon stadium there; it is world-class.

Kovalenko: Yes, they hold world championships there.

Vladimir Putin: We have just had a world championship.

Vitaly Mutko: There are representatives here from the school you visited in Petropalovsk-Kamchatsky -- "Edelweiss." It is an alpine skiing school. In accordance with your instructions, we made a decision yesterday to restore a chairlift and turn it into a good center of alpine skiing. About 800 children attend this school. You will remember that Tagara is a very good school, and a "growing point." We agreed that by the end of the year we will reorient the federal targeted programme to support such "growing points."

We also have Bratsk, a very good bobsledding-luge school. Petropalovsk-Kamchatsky, for instance, is focusing on alpine skiing, and Chelyabinsk, on ski flying, so that we can intensify our preparations for the Sochi Olympics. These guys come from these regions.

They are too shy to say so, but all of them have many problems. It is important not to reduce funding for sports centers for schoolchildren, and to pay for training sessions. It is very difficult to train without competitions. Children are telling us that sometimes parents have to collect the money to send them to national competitions.

After the meeting of winners, we will visit every school and talk to every governor, because here we really have the best student-athletes. Counting the boys and girls who are now preparing for Vancouver, 30% of them will join the Russian team.

Vladimir Putin: I hope so. Guys, I'd like to wish you success. There is not much time left before the Olympics - only five years. Your age will allow you to become the backbone of the national team in five years.

Winter sports have been traditionally strong in Russia. Our sportsmen have always achieved bright victories, and made our fans happy. You will do the same. I have no doubt about this. I hope to see many of you at the Sochi Olympic Games in 2014. I wish you success and all the best. Goodbye.