"Rotenberg could have gone for principle in the situation with Barinov"

The winter transfer from Lokomotiv to CSKA of midfielder Dmitry Barinov turned out to be one of the most high-profile in the RPL in recent years. The trainee of the "railwaymen" and their long-term captain scandalously left his hometown club after several months of negotiations. It was expected that he, like the other newcomers of that transfer campaign, would help the "Army" in the fight for the championship. But in the end, the red and blue finished the last Russian championship only in fifth place, although they fought for medals before the winter break. Dmitry himself has not yet scored a successful game, and his team has not started the new season in the best way.

In an interview with Izvestia, CSKA CEO Roman Babaev appreciated Barinov's transfer, explained his statement with gratitude to "the top management of Lokomotiv for their constructive position towards Dmitry" and told what role the deputy head of the presidential administration of the Russian Federation, former chairman of the Board of Directors of CSKA Maxim Oreshkin played in the transfer.

— Six months after Barinov's transfer, can we talk about him as unsuccessful?

— You can't say that. We can see that Barinov is starting in the last two matches. It is clear that expectations are always higher, especially when all this was accompanied by HYPE in the good sense of the word. And anyway, if you remember, the winter transfer window was unofficially considered one of the best for CSKA in recent years. But not everything went as planned and as predicted by many experts and experts, including many of you, journalists. However, this does not mean that we are disappointed, because Dima brings benefits to the team, he is one of the leaders. He has the character of a real athlete. And I am absolutely sure that he will still benefit us.

— In January, when Barinov's transfer was processed, a press release was published on the official resources of CSKA with your comment, where, in particular, the phrase "I would like to thank the top management of FC Lokomotiv separately for their constructive position towards Dmitry, who is, of course, one of the most important Russian football players." and the leader of the national team." Does this gratitude mean that the issue of Barinov's transfer to CSKA was resolved in the winter, before the expiration of the contract, thanks to the appeal of your high-ranking fan Maxim Oreshkin to the head of Russian Railways Oleg Belozerov?

— As for the words of gratitude, this is a fairly common practice after successful negotiations. It seems to me that you should always thank your colleagues if a transfer has taken place. This means that both sides expressed their will and were satisfied. But I also meant that theoretically Boris Borisovich (Rotenberg, CEO of Lokomotiv. — Ed.) could have gone on principle and said: "No, Dmitry will stay in the team until the contract expires and then let him go wherever he wants." We know many such examples, including at CSKA.

Replacements according to tradition: the RPL clubs that failed the season began personnel restructuring

Schwartz returned to Dynamo, while CSKA and Akron have not yet decided on head coaches.

— Can your answer be interpreted as confirmation that Maxim Oreshkin has resolved this issue with Oleg Belozerov?

— Maxim Stanislavovich helps the club a lot. When there is an opportunity to help in a particular situation, in particular when conducting difficult negotiations, he does it. And yes, in the case of Barinov's transfer, his help was also there.

— After a while, do you regret that the efforts of so many people were invested in this deal? Wouldn't it have been easier to wait for Dmitry to become a free agent in the summer?

— We were supposed to do our job. And I repeat, everyone really appreciated that transfer window. The hopes were optimistic. But unfortunately, life turned out to be more complicated. And everything went a little wrong.