The international Russian–Chinese Winter Sports Festival on the Amur River will open the "Golden Week" of celebrations in Blagoveshchensk. The programme will begin with celebrations of the Chinese New Year and conclude with the farewell to Maslenitsa, featuring the traditional burning of a straw effigy directly on the river ice. The TV BRICS International Media Network is acting as the international information partner of the event.
The festival’s sports programme traditionally consists of three sections: ice hockey, motor racing, and winter swimming. In ice hockey, children’s teams will play on the first day, followed by adult teams on the second. This year, the swimming races will take place at a new location – near the cold-water swimming centre on the Amur River.
This year, the festival format will, for the first time, go beyond bilateral cooperation. The Republic of Tatarstan will join the Amur Region as a partner region, bringing a children’s ice hockey team and a well-known motor racing team. On the Chinese side, teams from Heilongjiang and Anhui provinces will take part in the sporting competitions. One of the festival’s main guests will be two-time World Figure Skating Champion Evgeniya Medvedeva.
During the official opening ceremony, the Chinese side will be presented with a symbolic gift – a rocking toy in the shape of a fiery horse, painted in the traditions of Russian and Chinese cultures. Another art object will be a large engraving on the theme of friendship between the two countries, which will be created on the ice of the Amur River. Residents and visitors of Blagoveshchensk will be able to take part in its creation during a special workshop.
Governor of the Amur Region Vasily Orlov, in an exclusive comment to TV BRICS, noted the growing interest in the festival and plans to attract new partners as early as 2027–2028. He emphasised that the unique border location of Blagoveshchensk makes the event a special venue.
“Our venue is open to everyone. The uniqueness of Blagoveshchensk lies in the fact that two cities are separated only by a river, and spectators on the embankment can see everything with their own eyes. There are not many such examples in the world; on the Russian–Chinese border, it is the only one. […] We have already discussed participation with friends from Belarus. […] We are starting to attract partner regions – this year Tatarstan will join us, and there are also plans for cooperation in 2027–2028,” Orlov said.
Orlov also reported an agreement with the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation on the construction of a tennis centre on the banks of the Amur River in Blagoveshchensk, where the Russian national team may train in the future. The Governor added that a wushu festival is also held in the region.
The importance of the Winter Sports Festival for the development of bilateral relations was highlighted by Alina Stebneva, Director of the Department for Education, Science and International Relations at the Ministry of Sport of the Russian Federation.
“The Amur festival shows that the example of good neighbourliness between Russian regions and Chinese provinces is a very positive one. Therefore, we are grateful to our Chinese partners for constructive cooperation, which is consistently based on the principles of equality and mutual respect,” Stebneva added. She also noted that sports exchanges between the two countries are actively developing: in 2025, around 3,000 Russian athletes travelled to China, which is twice as many as in the previous year.
According to Vasily Orlov, around 30,000 people attended the festival in 2025. The event has become a driver for tourism development and the strengthening of international partnership. In line with an instruction from President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Blagoveshchensk also plans to establish a Russian–Chinese business cooperation centre to support companies interested in entering the Chinese market.
