MOSCOW, May 14. /TASS/. While supporting national mass sports in the country should be priority number one in Russia, it is also essential not to sever contact with the Olympic Movement, Mikhail Degtyarev, a candidate for the post of the Russian sports minister, said on Tuesday.

"The top priority will be the development of national mass sports," he said addressing lawmakers of the Russian parliament’s lower house, the State Duma.

"We know that sports such as bandy, northern sports, indigenous and niche sports exceed some Olympic sports in terms of their mass popularity," he continued. "We are set to take a weighted approach, but on the whole support your stance [on the inadmissibility of dividing sports into Olympic and non-Olympic]. However, we must keep maintaining contacts with the Olympic Movement."

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin nominated Mikhail Degtyarev, who has served as the governor of Russia’s Far Eastern Khabarovsk Territory since 2021, for the post of the country’s sports minister.

On May 12, the candidacy of Degtyarev was unanimously approved by members of the State Duma Committee on Physical Culture and Sports.