Russian oligarchs have long taken an interest in British institutions, from owning newspapers and football teams to sending their children to be educated at the leading public schools. But Alexander Konovalov, the Justice Minister in Vladimir Putin’s Cabinet, had one simple dream: he wanted to row at Henley Royal Regatta.
Yesterday, at the age of 42 and after some encouragement from Sir Steve Redgrave, he got his wish. Applauded on politely by the large crowds in their striped blazers and fancy hats on the Berkshire bank of the Thames, a scene that has barely changed since the days of the Edwardian garden party, the Russian Justice Minister took part in the Visitors’ Challenge Cup, an event for coxless fours.
His boat may have been beaten heavily by a composite crew representing Leander Club and Imperial College, who effectively won the race in the first minute, but Mr Konovalov was in his element. “Britain is extremely good at doing at least two things: rowing and practising law,” he said afterwards. “That is why your country is very close to me.”
Mr Konovalov was racing, if you could call it that, in the No 3 seat for the English Rowing Club, which was founded in St Petersburg in 1860. For its sesquicentenary last year, the club invited Redgrave, the five-times Olympic champion, to be their honorary president, and it was at a drinks reception there that Redgrave talked the Justice Minister into rowing for the first time in 20 years.
“I did rowing when I was 14 or 15 in Leningrad, as it then was,” Mr Konovalov said. “I was very happy at it and did it for ten years. I wanted to be in the national team but in those days most of the places went to Ukrainians and Lithuanians.”
Advertisement
At 17st 9lb, he was six stones heavier than anyone in the opposing boat, but he knows how to throw his weight around. After a few sessions on a rowing machine and two months of training on the water with his crewmates, a request was made to the Henley organisers.
“We were told that the Russian Justice Minister wanted to row at Henley and we suggested the veterans’ regatta,” a source said. “But his PA was insistent: he wanted to row at the Royal Regatta.”
He also had to seek special dispensation from his boss, Mr Putin, to take three weeks off to row in Britain. The Russian crew borrowed a boat from Upper Thames Rowing Club in Henley and warmed up by winning an event at the Reading regatta two weeks ago.
Family pride may have had something to do with his dream. “My father-in-law, Yuri, was a Henley winner in 1964,” Mr Konovalov said. “I had been to Henley before and got this crazy idea to come back for one event only, just for my own joy. My main rival was my own body, but I managed to enjoy it.”
Russia, or the Soviet Union, has won 13 Olympic gold medals in rowing, three of them by Vyacheslav Ivanov, a single sculler, from 1956-64, but the country’s rowing federation was embarrassed in 2008 by a doping scandal involving seven rowers.
Advertisement
Mr Konovalov added that he hopes to persuade Ken Clarke, his opposite number in the British Cabinet and a fellow heavyweight, to take up the sport.