As I promised.
http://www.sport-express.ru/figure-...-kolyada-ya-chasto-byl-beloy-voronoy-1352492/
Interviewer is Ekaterina Kulinicheva from Saint Petersburg (E.K.)
E.K.: Now you are two-time champion of Russia. Did you imagine this moment in your childhood?
M.: Yes, I did.
E.K.: It seems, Yulia Lipnitskaya told in the past she had built the podium out of almost shoe boxes and she climbed on the podium to rehearse rewarding.
M.: No, I did not do this. I just understood this moment would ever come. It has come. I do not feel anything incredible has happened. It merely might be every year gets a bit more responsibility. But the rest is not changed.
E.K.: As older friend you touching took care of the 'youngers' (Alexander Samarin and Dmitri Aliev) at the press conference. For example, you dared them to answer questions and not to remain silent. How often do you have to perform such care?
M.: I would not say so. Rather I was just trying to cheer up guys at the press conference. I understood all had skated bad, and I had to defuse the situation.
E.K.: At the Moscow stage Yuzuru Hanyu was asked whether he understood that he made his fans suffer. What would you like to do the first in such situations? Write the apology in social networks? Just forget as soon as possible?
M.: Actually I just want to fix it as soon as possible. I well understand I can be better, and what I showed is not my max. There were gaps somewhere, so I need to work on them. And then at the following start try to fix it. Of course, I have a feeling... I would call it ‘a sense of unfulfilled duty’, probably. Honestly, I can only repeat what has been said at the press conference: I am satisfied with my upshot at the Russian Championship, but I am not satisfied with my skating there.
Е.К.: Are you a maximalist?
M.: No, I'm more of an optimist.
Е.К.: The informed [optimist], as in the famous saying?
M.: Probably (..laughs..).
Е.К.: Do you remember the value of all elements by heart?
M.: Not accurately. Аpproximately only.
Е.К.: There is an official VK group of you. What is your current interaction with your fans?
M.: Nothing lately. I used to see sometimes and read something there. But now, no.
Е.К.: Why did you change your habits?
M.: I'm just trying to slowly move away from the Internet. I don't like it when my persona is discussed too active. Understandably, it is impossible to change, but I like to stay away from all of this. It is very distracting from the training process. It is a big pressure, if you are constantly thinking someone said something or they will say.
E.K.: What is more unsettling - when you are criticized or you are praised?
M.: Honestly, I don’t even know.
Е.К.: You surely understood that it would happen, when you became a leader. The more results and ambitions - the more discussion. The same was the case with Maxim Kovtun, Evgeni Plushenko and others.
M.: Of course. I clearly understand that people are discussing and ones will discuss. I just try to get myself more distant from these things every year. I try to read nothing. And I even change the subject, if someone starts talking about them. E.g., my parents. I tell them not to read anything too. They start to worry. They begin to retell me read, when l come. But it is not necessary to know that for me.
Е.К.: Are you able to persuade them?
M.: Yes, I am. They are great indeed, and they attempt to follow my advice.
Е.К.: Is web-surfing needed to remove from the hobbies list on your ISU profile, right?
M.: Why? I don’t read about myself, but I enjoy to read everything else. Some articles. Everything suddenly interesting. It is something small sometimes, but the competence is accumulating in my head. There is a lot of subjects besides of figure skating in the life. And I have some of them among my interests too. So web-surfing may remain, all right.
E.K.: Are you recognized, when you come to the cinema in Saint Petersburg?
M.: Not yet.
E.K.: Would you like it?
M.: Honestly, no. When Russians see someone on TV, they begin to think that this personality is some kind of extraordinary. This is evident even in their faces. I would like it, if I am recognized, I am reacted as a someone normal, an ordinary person. In addition, private space should be available to every person. In the end, even the person from TV being unkempt can go to the shop in the morning, because there is nothing for breakfast. The one may have some household duties. Let’s imagine in this situation someone wants to take photo with you. I’ve remembered, one day a girl recognized me in the underground.
At the beginning she had been looking at me for a long time, so I began to suspect something was bad. (...laughs…) It looked like the any manner of wickedness. Then she came up, and it turns out that she just wasn’t sure if it was me for not.
E.K.: Probably, you should be afraid of the agiotage as around Yuzuru Hanyu.
M.: It’s easier for him in this sense, he is escorted everywhere. He doesn’t go shopping, in hotels he doesn’t have breakfast, lunch and dinner where everybody does it. Thus he has the private space too, and it is a supersecret.
E.K.: What else, besides reading in the network, helps you to switch?
M.: I watch films, for example. At home or in the cinema. I listen to music, walk. I might say that I'm a music lover and movie buff. I like many things.
E.K.: What have you watched of the latest?
M.: Of the latest, it seems, "The Dark Tower", it's not a bad film. But now there is a lot of movies, which seems similar, so I even don't remember them. Actually the one of my favorite films is the Soviet "Sherlock Holmes". I have rewatched it many many times and know it by heart. When I am ill or something else, I just turn it on in the background, and it immediately becomes pleasant.
E.K.: Probably, the most great of the latest premieres is ‘Star wars’. Have you seen it yet?
M.: I haven’t watched any episode of ‘Star Wars’. I'm probably one of the few such in the world (..laughs..).
E.K.: Do you feel uncomfortable when all around are discussing, and you are not in subject?
M.: Do not! I'm not used to stand out, but in some situations it turns out since childhood I felt a black sheep a little . So for me, it's not unheard of when all discussing something, and I have no clue.
E.K.: Do you mean many familiar to your peers things have passed by you because of sports?
M.: And this too. For example, I have in my life later came the phone, later came the Internet. Everyone was already in the subject, sharing some things via Bluetooth and I was not. Not that I was worried. Really I lived without that, and normally. I just can't remember all situations. But if to generalize, it has often happened that all go in one direction and I in another. Maybe someone even thinks of me as a bit out there. But it turns out that yes, I'm a black sheep in some situations.
E.K.: When such things as phone, appear later, people usually remember the first thing they bought when they started earning. What about you?
M.: Honestly, don't remember what I wasted the first salary for. It was a long ago enough. Many people asked me this question and told their stories. People really often remember that in some ancient year they bought, for example, a tape recorder. But I don’t remember at all.
E.K.: What about the gifts, which you bought for your mother or your coach?
M.: Of course, they were. I bought them for my mother and for my father and for my coach. I generally try caring about loved ones. Not only in terms of gifts, but, for example, find time to talk to my family normally, not on the run only.
E.K.: Wouldn't you like to speak about those gifts, as I understand it?
M.: Not especially. I don't like to rant about my private life.
E.K.:Athletes in my experience fall into two categories. Who doesn't like to talk about family, hobbies and so on. And someone to speak on such topics, on the contrary, much easier than on work and sports.
M.: I can tell you about the family and about sports. Basically, It is not a secret for anybody that there are four of us in the family, I have two sisters and a brother, all are relatives. But just about the private life I don't usually say.
E.K.: Is a big family great?
M: Actually, yes, this is something there. I don't know how to explain accurately. Perhaps there is some additional responsibility.
E.K.: Is figure skating easier in 22 than in 17?
M.: No. In fact, it becomes harder and harder every year . I don't know the reason, perhaps, it is a physiology. But in terms of psychology, perhaps easier: you have already gained experience at the starts, which were a lot, you have already seen a lot. But in the "physics" doesn't get any easier that's for sure, and this is a significant moment. We have a very early sport. If counting, I've been skating for 17 years, this is the biggest part of my life.
E.K.: Your profile picture in one of social networks is the photo taken on the Jordan staircase in the Hermitage. How often do you go there?
M.: Scarcely. The last time I was there, if I remember correctly, in June. I didn't go to see something specific, but on the whole. So I slowly walked around the whole floor.
E.K.: Museums, as far as I know, is an integral part of life in St. Petersburg of the student.
M.: Our class did not go to the Hermitage . But we always went to the "Russian Museum", though I can't say that I memorized then a lot. But overall, I think that in any city the locals rarely go to tourist attractions. Definitely less than tourists. It's like in the South: if the person is pale – he's probably local, but if well tanned – probably a tourist. A local, maybe once a month go to swim and that's enough.
E.K.: Had you deal with the opinion that if a person is a skater by profession, he just had to see all the ballets and operas to?
M.: No. I don't think that it depends on profession, but it's a personal preference. There are people who have all tickets to the opera or ballet , but it isn't necessary to be skater for it.
E.K.: Can you allow for the New Year Eve, for example, the salad with mayonnaise?
M.: Regarding this matter I don't limit myself. I can allow any food for me. But everything should be within reasonable.
I just want to clarify a couple of points that do not seem quite clear.
