OREANDA-NEWS   The Russian Olympic Committee has elected Russian Sports Minister Mikhail Degtyarev as the new president of the organization; the election of the head of the ROC was held on an uncontested basis, an Interfax correspondent reports.

197 delegates of the meeting voted in favor, two delegates abstained from voting.

In addition, the ROC announced on the telegram channel on Friday the election of Roman Kramar, former general director of the Khabarovsk Amur hockey club, as the new general director of the committee. Viktor Berezov, the former Deputy Secretary General of the Committee, became the General Secretary of the ROC.

Elections of vice-presidents, members of the executive Committee and the control and audit commission are held at the ROC meeting.

On October 17, at a meeting of the Presidential Council for Physical Culture and Sports, the head of the Russian Tennis Federation, Shamil Tarpishchev, proposed Degtyarev's candidacy for the post of president of the ROC. Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted positively to this proposal. Later, the Minister of Sports publicly confirmed his participation in the election of the head of the committee.

Degtyarev's candidacy was nominated by 22 sports federations, in total, 33 members of the ROC supported the participation of the Minister of Sports in the elections. Degtyarev became the only candidate for the post of head of the organization.

The previous president of the ROC, Stanislav Pozdnyakov, resigned on November 13. He has held this position since 2018. In addition to Pozdnyakov, ROC Secretary General Rodion Plitukhin (from November 13) and CEO Vladimir Sengleev (from November 21) resigned.

Pozdnyakov explained his decision by saying that the geopolitical challenges faced by Russia "dictate the need to optimize and centralize the management of key areas of activity, including top-level sports."