Federal program for healthy life support to be created in Russia

Draft address of Duma deputies to President Putin “On measures for state support of the mass physical culture and sport, and popularization of healthy way of living” is on the agenda of the Duma’s plenary session today. The deputies will offer the president to touch upon the problem of physical culture and sport in the president’s traditional annual address. They also offer to develop a federal target program “Healthy way of living of Russia’s population”.

Special attention of the deputies’ address is focused on creation of a national sports TV channel (probably on TV-6 channel). First of all, the deputies try to take account of the population’s wishes.

Deputy Gennady Raikov (People’s Deputy group) says, “the population likes to watch sports programs”. Every day he gets 10-15 letters with requests to leave the sports programs on the TV-6 channel (the programs are broadcast on the channel now). Russia’s sports policy is not to be restricted with opening of new gymnasiums and sports schools only. In his interview to the Echo Moskvy radio Gennady Raikov told, “a wide propaganda of sports” is to be realized. The propaganda can be carried out on the national public TV channel.

Yesterday the coordination council of Duma’s four centrist coalitions supported the initiative of the People’s Deputy group.

Indeed, when TV-6 channel ceased broadcasting, we got an opportunity to take account of numerous requests of the population, public and political organizations to set up a public sports TV channel in Russia. One of the Duma deputies mentioned, the country has got a wonderful chance to watch complete Olympic Games (that is also to have an effect on the athletes).

Earlier the Russian Glasnost Protection Fund asked the competent sociological services (the Center for Public Opinion Research and ROMIR) and largest printed editions to hold an opinion poll on the subject “Which candidate for getting a license on broadcasting on TV-6 channel is to be preferred?” President’s Aide Sergey Yastrzhembsky thinks, “the state of population’s health has reached a critical point”. The necessity of healthy life popularization is pressing now. In the aide’s words, it is important to set up an All-Russian sports channel; the only thing that is left to do it to chose the broadcasting frequency.

Russia’s Press Minister Mikhail Lesin promised, the population’s requests will be taken into account while determining TV-6 fate.

Sergey Stefanov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Maria Gousseva

Read the original in Russian: http://www.pravda.ru/main/2002/02/15/37109.html