OREANDA-NEWS. July 30, 2010. An Extraordinary Congress of the Russian Cycling Federation (RCF) to elect the RCF President took place in Moscow. Alexei Kulakovski, Secretary of the Council on Physical Culture and Sports Development under the President of the Russian Federation, Yuri Nagornykh, Deputy Minister of Sports, Tourism, and Youth Policy of Russia, Marat Bariyev, Executive Director of the Olympic Committee of Russia (OCR), and Vladimir Vasin, Vice President of OCR. Valeri Sysoyev, the RCF President Emeritus, was a chairperson.

A decision to hold an Extraordinary Congress was taken because Oleg Siyenko, a former head of the Federation, resigned in March of 2010. He explained he was too busy with his main job in the scientific and production corporation 'Uralvagonzavod' as General Director.

Candidates to the position of the RCF President made their reports to the Congress. Among them were Igor Makarov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ITERA Oil and Gas Company, LLC, Deputy Chairman of the board of Guardians of RCF, world-class athlete; Vyacheslav Yekimov, Sports Director of RadioShack, a bicycling team of the USA; and Yuri Kucheryavyi, a two times Olympic Champion, the RCF Vice President.

When presenting his program, Igor Makarov described in detail the concrete problems of the national bicycling and ways to solve them. He stressed that ITERA was a general sponsor of RCF since 2000. Also, ITERA is a co-founder and an ideological mastermind of Pro TOUR KTYUSHA Team with an annual budget of USD  25 million.  The best racers of our country and promising young athletes make themselves prepared to the Olympic Games-2012 as members of KATYUSHA. According to Igor Makarov, "entrepreneurial spirit" should be introduced to the efforts to be taken by RCF for it to achieve success.

Secret ballot was conducted after the detailed and serious discussion of the programs proposed by the candidates to the RCF President position. Igor Makarov got 29, while Yuri Kucheryavyi got 11, and Vyacheslav Yekimov 5 votes for.

The Congress decided to increase the number of the RCF Management Committee from 15 to 18 members. Valeri Sysoyev was appointed Chairman of the RCF Expert Council. Sergei Nikitenko, Member of the Board of Guardians, World Champion, shall be a liaison with the RCF Board of Guardians. Yuri Starovatykh has become Chairman of the Collegium of Commissars.

When replying to journalists, Igor Makarov admitted that a decision to head the RCF was not spontaneous: "Unfortunately, we were unable to find a candidate who could consolidate the entire national bicycling, so I decided to undertake responsibilities related to bringing the national cycling out of the deep crisis. It is impossible to accomplish such a large task without a close-knit team of professionals. So, we are going to do it together".