In an anniversary issue a year ago, we published an interview with Alina Kabaeva, who told us a lot about her family, her sports career, and her new self as a politician. The young PM and deputy chair of the State Duma's Youth Committee has done a great deal since that time. Alina initiated the Youth Year. She has authored and hosted the Steps to Success on REN TV, which itself became so successful that she won the title Discovery of the Year in the survey carried out by TNS Gallup Media at the request of 7 Days magazine.

Alina Kabaeva sponsored a telephone help desk focusing on youth employment, labour rights, and the Common State Exam issues. She conceived the Russian language column in Izvestia. We asked Alina Kabaeva to tell us more about her successful, useful and interesting projects.

- Alina, you were the initiator of the ongoing Youth Year in our country. What has been done by now? Which projects do you supervise personally?

- You know, it may be better to discuss the progress of the Youth Year projects with officials from the Ministry of Sports, Tourism, and Youth Policy, which is responsible for their implementation. In a nutshell, I can say there are 60 national-scale projects planned for this year, which are financed from the federal budget. These projects and campaigns are intended to support young talents, students, scientists, journalists, business starters, and disabled people and are related to arts, education, sports, tourism, rehabilitation, occupational guidance, and other areas. Initiatives that were included at my request are a series of educational workshops for young journalists from various parts of Russia and opening of Internet rooms in boarding schools for physically disabled children.

- You opened a Common State Exam hotline both last year and this year. How and why was this idea born? What sort of feedback have you received from people?

- I think you know the introduction of the CSE has become a major concern for school-leavers and their parents; the new system has been largely criticised. I've heard many senior school students complaining about a lack of information about it. Because I understood it was beyond my control to change anything in the new examination system, I decided I should at least help people cope with it by organising the CSE hotline. It became one of the first major projects funded by my charity foundation. It was first launched last year and it provided telephone consultation on the exam subjects and procedures. The hotline proved efficient and I decided to open it again in 2009. We are not resting on oars, however. We never stop developing and we constantly try to improve it. So this year we also added e-mail service. Like last year, school-leavers' questions were answered by school teachers and officials from the Federal Education Service. To understand the feedback, I think we can rely on how many calls the line received from all over Russia, which was about 2,000 a day. Many people sent thanks by e-mail. And finally, we try to classify the most frequent complaints and comments, which we then submit to the Education Service. I hope this will help them to improve the system in the future.

- It's been nearly a year since your Steps to Success show was launched on REN TV. What have you learned while working on it? The making of which episode do you remember best? Have you discovered some unknown, unexpected sides in any of your guests? (Editor's note: The show has featured dancer Maya Plisetskaya, opera diva Galina Vishnevskaya, actors Yevgeny Mironov and Armen Dzhigarkhanyan, singers Iosif Kobzon and Larisa Dolina, football player Andrei Arshavin, conductor Valery Gergiev, and many other celebrities).

- I'd like to say I'm very glad I took a chance on this project. I had doubts first, I had never hosted a TV show before and I understood I’d have to learn many things. Besides, making your own programme is a responsible and time-consuming job. As the author, I'm in charge of the entire production process: guests’ selection, script, interviewing, etc. But I made this step and have never regretted it because I have learned a lot for this time, I have changed some of my attitudes and seen certain things in a different light. You know, each person is a separate world, a different viewpoint. During the preparation and filming, I feel as if I live my guests' lives together with them... I remember all the episodes. There are no accidental people in my series. Each of them was chosen and invited by me.

- You are a member of the State Duma, the author and host of a TV show, chair of the Public Board at the National Media Group, and head of a charity… Which of these is more interesting for you? Is it hard to combine?

- I like all these activities. Believe me, I would not do things that I feel bored with. Besides, much of what I'm doing today has to do with development of civil society. And this is very important for me. It's true that I hardly have any free time, but so far I can't imagine my life without any of my current activities.

Tatarskie Novosti,
# 5-6 (178-179), 2009