MOSCOW, March 26. /ITAR-TASS/. Head coach of Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) Moscow team Dinamo, Oleg Znarok has been appointed head coach of Russian national ice hockey team. This decision was taken after his meeting with Russia’s Minister of Sport Vitaly Mutko and President of Russian Hockey Federation Vladislav Tretyak on Wednesday.

51-year-old Znarok is honored coach of Russia, two-fold champion and winner of the Gagarin Cup (2012, 2013) as Dinamo coach. He was recognized three times as coach of the year in KHL (in 2010, 2012, 2013). In 2003-2005, he was coaching the junior national team of Latvia, and in 2006-2011 he was training the main Latvian ice hockey team. Oleg Znarok is a citizen of Germany.

The predecessor of Znarok, Zinetulla Bilyaletdinov was head coach of the national ice hockey team since 2011 and resigned after the Olympic Games in Sochi, where the Russian squad lost in quarterfinals to Finland 1:3 and did not get any expected medals.