Moscow, May 27. The Minister of Energy Alexander Novak and the Minister of Science and Higher Education Mikhail Kotyukov took part in the Roscongress Rosich Cup football tournament, which was held in Moscow, opening the sporting programme of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Teams of the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Science and Higher Education, the Rosich sports club under the Government of the Russian Federation, the Roscongress Foundation, made up of SPIEF participants and the Skolkovo Foundation led by Arkady Dvorkovich, Chairman of the World Chess Federation, all participated in the tournament. Before the start of the competition, a draw allocated one high-profile football player to each team.

The FIDE team led by European chess champion Dmitry Jakovenko became the winner of the Roscongress Rosich Cup, having won all the matches. The football prize winner of Euro 2008 Dmitri Sychev and the actor Artur Smolyaninov reinforced the chess players’ team. The Roscongress Foundation team led by the Head of Federal Agency for Fishery Ilya Shestakov and the football player Oleg Kornaukhov took the second place. Renowned striker Vladimir Kulik played for the team of the Ministry of Energy, which took third place, and Dmitri Bulykin, one of the best scorers in the new history of Russian football, played for the team of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education.

"The programme of SPIEF 2019 includes events in 12 different sports. However, sometimes in the process of programme making Forum participants offer various sporting events and at once lament that there is no chance for them to participate, as they are busy with the business programme. So the idea was to invite the SPIEF team to the football tournament traditionally held in Moscow by the Rosich club. We also agreed on joint preparation of football-related events for the Roscongress Sports Club, an all-year club bringing together athletic people," - said Georgy Bryusov, Deputy CEO of the Roscongress Foundation.

The Roscongress Foundation is a socially oriented non-financial development institution and a major organizer of international conventions, exhibitions, and public events.

The Roscongress Foundation was founded in 2007 with the aim of facilitating the development of Russia’s economic potential, promoting its national interests, and strengthening the country’s image. One of the roles of the Foundation is to comprehensively evaluate, analyse, and cover issues on the Russian and global economic agendas. It also offers administrative services, provides promotional support for business projects and attracting investment, and helps foster social entrepreneurship and charitable initiatives.

The Foundation’s events draw more than 80,000 participants each year from 195 countries, with more than 10,000 media representatives working on-site at Roscongress’ various venues. The Foundation benefits from analytical and professional expertise provided by 2,500 people working in Russia and abroad. In addition, it works in close cooperation with economic partners from 75 countries worldwide.

www.roscongress.org