A day after the Worlds I took part in Eugenie Plushenko’s show. I was going to skate my exhibition program, the one with a phone, but on the day before the show Ari Zakarian, Plushenko’s agent and the organizer of the gala, came up to me and asked to skate something calm and gentle, because our country was in shock after the terrorist attacks in Moscow… On reflection I chose to skate my last season’s short program, though in a lighter version, with two jumps and two spins. But nevertheless I somehow manage to get an injury. Immediately after my performance I felt pain in my left shoulder. Then we went to Moscow by train. I woke up in the middle of the night and realized that I cannot move my arm. Fortunately, the pain abated a little by morning.

I travelled to Moscow in the same compartment with Masha Mukhortova, and the next one was occupied by Stephane Lambiel and Johnny Weir. They are so cool! Johnny is fluent in Russian. Apparently, he has no accent at all! When we arrived in Moscow, a crowd of girls, his fans, was waiting at the station. We even got tired of waiting while he was autographing. The show was similar to the one in St. Petersburg, but there was a very touching moment, when Mukhortova burst into tears after she and Maxim Trankov skated their program. It was very likely their last performance together. The split-up of the pair is the talk of the town among skaters. Many of them condemn Maxim, and Masha doesn’t talk about her future plans. She just keeps on saying ‘You’ll know it soon’. Trankov has already left St. Petersburg. And Sergey Voronov, too, returned to his beloved Moscow. It was obvious even before the World Championships that the relations between him and his coach Alexei Urmanov were badly damaged. On the whole, it’s the time for changes now, and for rumors as well. I’ve already read that my new coach is Nicolay Morozov. Then someone rumored it that I had been lured away by Oleg Vasiliev. It’s nonsense. I’m not leaving Alla Piatova, that’s all. On returning to St. Petersburg I went to a clinic, because my shoulder kept on troubling me. It turned out that I’ve got a minor sprain, nothing serious. Recently I’ve been invited to an audience with Russian Minister of the Inferior Rashid Nurgaliev. The thing is, in December 2009 I joined the Dynamo sports society, which is supervised by the ministry. At the end of the season I was even promoted warrant officer. Last Thursday I went to military reserve training – it was fun. They gave me a huge sheepskin, and let me fire a Kalashnikov and a Makarov gun. Summing it up, I decided that I could do military service for one day, but no longer. Soon I’ll start working on my new programs. And on May, 19 I will go to Turkey on a 10 days’ holiday together with my mother, brother and friends. The tickets have been already bought.