Meeting with Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Mantera Group Alexander Tkachev

President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Mr Tkachev, you wanted to tell me about some of your projects that are mostly associated with the tourism business.

Alexander Tkachev: Yes, Mr President. Thank you for the honour of seeing you.

If I may, I would like to say a few words about what the Mantera Group has accomplished in the tourism cluster established in the former Olympic facilities over the past five years. As you may recall, there was much discussion about what would happen there after the Olympic Games. The task set for all of us - business and investors - was to make all these facilities work. We have accomplished that.

Today, the Mantera Group has 7,000 hotel rooms, which makes it the second largest hotel group in Russia. We have a staff of 9,000. As for the number of tourists, we receive about seven million people every year. This involves a lot of work and a great deal of responsibility.

Mantera includes Sochi Park, the children's amusement park located in the Sirius federal territory, which attracts about 1.5 million visitors a year.

There are also two ski resorts, Krasnaya Polyana and Arkhyz.

We are also actively engaged in wine production. The well-known Chateau de Talu winery in Gelendzhik is a source of pride for us. About 40,000 tourists visit it every year.

We have a relatively large trout farm in Adler and also offer agro and gastro tours to about 50,000 people every year.

The wonderful Mandrogi Village in the Leningrad Region is an ethnic village with wooden houses by the river, where visitors can enjoy village life.

I would like to share our joy with you. Last year, we launched a new flagship project, Hotel Mantera Supreme. It is a 5-star superior luxury hotel in the Sirius federal territory. It has received various awards and has been declared the best hotel in the country. Contests and performances have been held there. We are certainly proud of this.

The hotel has 800 rooms and residences, several world cuisine restaurants, a two-level spa with 11 roofed and open pools with fresh and sea water, and a large conference centre with 1,500 seats where major events, including international ones, can be held.

About 38 billion rubles have been invested, which is a lot.

I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude to VEB.RF and DOM.RF, which have lent us a hand and worked together with us.

We are also actively working with Sirius and the Talent and Success Foundation, which are our partners. We are working together to implement joint projects in agriculture and tourism. As I have told you before, we will jointly implement an international-level golf club project. We are now coordinating a concept, and I hope that we will start implementing this project next year.

Probably the primary focus of my report is our company's commitment to developing three key ski resorts: Krasnaya Polyana (in which we hold a stake), Arkhyz, and Lago-Naki.

We believe the time is now right to move beyond developing these as separate projects and instead integrate them into a single, unified megaproject. By creating this large-scale, interconnected mountain infrastructure, I am confident we can attract up to 8 million tourists annually and develop approximately 550 kilometres of ski runs. This will offer visitors seamless travel and a vastly improved experience across the different resorts.

For this project to succeed, government partnership is essential, particularly in developing the necessary road infrastructure. As you know, around 30 percent of visitors travel to Sochi by car, and the existing Dzhubga-Sochi route is a long and difficult mountain journey, especially for families with children in summer. We know that it is costly, too.

For example, the drive from Sochi to Lago-Naki in Adygea currently takes around 10 hours. However, constructing a new road via the gorge, including a single 50-kilometre tunnel, could reduce this journey to just one hour. This new corridor could potentially solve another problem: travellers could arrive via Rostov and Krasnodar on the M-4 motorway, reach Maikop and Lago-Naki, and then continue on to Krasnaya Polyana and the Black Sea coast. This addresses a dual seasonal challenge: directing visitors to the mountains and ski resorts in winter and to the sea in summer, supported by both the existing Dzhubga-Sochi route and the new link. This would solve many infrastructure problems.

The second key issue is the connection between Sochi/Krasnaya Polyana and Arkhyz. While the direct distance is just over 105 kilometres, achieving this link may require the construction of three tunnels. Nevertheless, this is a solvable challenge. The result will reduce travel time between Arkhyz and Sochi from the current 15 hours to approximately 90 minutes, effectively 'unlocking' the entire region.

We know this project will take time and investment, likely requiring five to ten years to complete. However, if we do it, connecting the European part of Russia with the Caucasus in this way would not only drive major investment into the region but also attract new international brands, restaurateurs, technologies, and operators. This will enhance the quality of life, boost regional competitiveness, and ultimately open up the Caucasus to millions of our citizens.

Thank you very much.

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