Sports Minister Vitaly Mutko is one of the most closed to the press officials. A statesman appears before the public either during the major sports successes of Russian athletes, or as a person involved in scandals. Vitaly Mutko is spoken differently. He is called both a strong business executive, and a servile official, and a person from the close circle of Putin. Let's try to briefly understand the biography of a state functionary.
Childhood and education
On December 8, 1958, a son, Vitaliy, was born into the family of a loader and machine operator near Tuapse. Since childhood, the boy dreamed of connecting his life with the sea. After 8 classes of high school, he decides to enter a river school in Rostov-on-Don. Having failed entrance exams, Vitaly wants to try his luck in Leningrad. There he enters first at vocational schools, and then at the Maritime College of Petrokrepost (present-day Shlisselburg). After graduation, Vitaly Leontyevich worked for 2 years on a sightseeing ship Vladimir Ilyich, which served sightseeing routes from the Northern capital to Valaam and Kizhi. Fateful for the future minister was 1978. Then he decided to enter the Leningrad River School, where he began to get involved in trade union work, which subsequently provided him with the right people.
Carier start
In 1979, Vitaly Leontyevich joined the ranks of the Communist Party. At school, he headed the branch of the trade union committee, and in 1983, according to the distribution, he got into the committee of the Kirov district of Leningrad. In parallel with his work at the post, Mutko continued his studies at the Leningrad Institute of Water Transport. By 1990, Vitaly Mutko could be spoken of as an established statesman. He heads the social affairs department of the district executive committee and becomes one of the initiators of the establishment of the Council of Chairpersons. During the coup, it is this organization that will support the nomination of Anatoly Sobchak for the role of mayor of St. Petersburg. Probably, it was his acquaintance with Anatoly Aleksandrovich that provided Mutko with rapid advancement in the career ladder.
Since 1992, Mutko has been in charge of physical education, medicine and sports in the government of the first mayor of the northern capital. It was then that he met with Vladimir Putin, who also worked in the team of Sobchak. The public service of Vitaly Leontyevich was interrupted in 1996, when Vladimir Yakovlev became the governor of St. Petersburg , who dismissed both Mutko and Putin, and almost the entire team of the first mayor.
Mutko and football
Back in 1992, Vitaly Leontyevich began to supervise the St. Petersburg "Zenith" on behalf of the city administration. In 1995, he became the formal president of the team. Then it was said about Vitaly Mutko that he allocates about half a million rubles from the treasury annually to the club’s functioning. Later, he concludes a contract with the Baltika brewing company, which became the first sponsor of Zenit. After his dismissal from public office in 1996, Vitaly completely concentrated on football. In 1999, he signed a contract with Gazprom, the main shareholder of Zenit, to this day. Mutko remained president of the club until 2005. During this time, the team significantly added, breaking into the top five leaders of the domestic championship.
From 2001 to 2003 there was a parallel position held by Vitaliy Mutko. According to the rules, the President of the RFU cannot simultaneously be the head of one of the championship clubs, but for some reason this did not bother football officials. In 2005, Mutko again headed the organization, and in 2009 even became one of the authorized members of FIFA. During his reign, there were a number of scandals. The last was the failure of the Russian team at Hidding and the subsequent payment of a huge severance pay to the coach.
Mutko - Minister
In 2008, Putin becomes prime minister and begins to form a cabinet around himself. The portfolio was also received by his old colleague Vitaliy Mutko. The Minister of Sports took office on May 12. A year earlier, Mutko was talked about as one of the responsible persons in the preparation of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. The Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Vitaly Mutko focused one of the main directions of his work on the organization of another large-scale project - the 2018 World Cup. Despite a number of failures, he managed to keep the minister’s portfolio in 2012, when Dmitry Medvedev became his immediate boss. Under Vitaly Mutko, the Russian Olympic team for the first time in many years was not included in the top three at the 2012 Olympics. However, a number of merits are prescribed to the minister. It was under his leadership that he managed to win the right to host the World Cup, the Universiade in Kazan and the Olympic Games in Sochi took place. Despite all the shortcomings, even negatively-minded citizens call the official a strong business executive.
Mutko and the Internet
In 2010, Vitaliy Mutko became famous on the Internet. At the FIFA meeting, he represented Russia as a contender for the title of mistress of the 2018 soccer championship. Trying to impress the public, he decided to give a speech in English. The expression “let me speak from my heart”, said by the official with a terrible accent, the very next day became a popular meme on the Web. The YouTube video clip gained several million views in a matter of days.