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Putin was the main guest at opening ceremony of Beijing 2022 Olympics - chief of protocol

Vladislav Kitayev declined to disclose details regarding technical difficulties

MOSCOW, February 6. /TASS/. President Vladimir Putin was guest number one at the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympic Games, that was repeatedly confirmed by China’s authorities, Vladislav Kitayev, Chief of the Russian Presidential Protocol, told Rossiya-1 TV channel on Sunday.

"Our Chinese colleagues repeatedly stressed, and the event confirmed this once again, that president Putin was the main guest of this event, the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games," Kitayev said in the "Moscow. Kremlin. Putin" program in reply to questions from journalist Pavel Zarubin.

According to him, "in the most difficult conditions" of the pandemic and epidemiological restrictions, the Chines authorities paid heed to the wishes of the Russian side, helping to make this visit maximally comfortable for the Russian leader.

Kitayev declined to disclose details regarding technical difficulties. "But the main result - the visit of our president to China - I think that it is positive, and the audience could see this, make sure of this," the Kremlin chief of protocol said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday arrived in Beijing and held a meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping. This was Putin’s first visit to China since the beginning of the novel coronavirus pandemic. The Russian-Chinese summit level negotiations ended with the adoption of a joint statement on international relations that were entering a new era and on global sustainable development.