On February 7—on the eve of Diplomatic Workers’ Day—Moscow Country Club, a GlavUpDK affiliate, hosted the 24th Winter Diplomatic Games. The event started the 2026 season, which marks the 105th anniversary of Main Administration for Service to the Diplomatic Corps (GlavUpDK) under the MFA of Russia.
It was opened by Alexey Ostrovsky, Director-General of the MFA of Russia, who read out a greeting address from Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov. “Held under the auspices of GlavUpDK, the Games annually bring together many representatives of the diplomatic corps to enjoy a true winter sporting festival. It is gratifying that this time they are taking place during the Year of Unity of the Peoples of Russia declared by President Vladimir Putin,” the greeting reads.
The Greeting from Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov to Organizers, Participants and Guests of the 24th Winter Diplomatic Games. Read the full text.
The opening ceremony of the Winter Diplomatic Games was also attended by Head of GlavUpDK Vyacheslav Fatin, Olympic champion Svetlana Zhurova, First Deputy Chairwoman of the Committee on International Affairs in the State Duma of the Russian Federation, Ekaterina Shapovalova, initiator and manager of the Russian Gastronomic Map project..
Teams from 20 diplomatic missions, international organizations, mass media, GlavUpDK and the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs went on the Moscow Country Club sports grounds to compete for awards in cross-country skiing, table tennis, Russian billiards, mini-football and arm wrestling amid the genuine Russian winter. This year has been the first time that the sports program included chess competitions. The judge panel consisted of legendary Russian and Soviet athletes and professional umpires.
There was an exciting unrelenting battle in mini-football as the Moscow Country Club team defeated EEC representatives in the final, while teams from the Uzbekistani Embassy and the Embassy of Saudi Arabia shared bronze medals.
The arm wrestling competition among men (90+ kilograms) was won by the Embassy of South Ossetia (2nd place) and the Kyrgyz Embassy (3rd place). The gold cup among women (75+ kilograms) went to the Embassy of Zambia with a representative of the Kyrgyz Republic as the silver medal winner.
Representatives of the Belarusian Embassy were the fastest to finish both in the men’s and women’s cross-country skiing disciplines.
The men’s table tennis tournament was won by an EEC employee, the Embassy of China following as a runner-up winner. The TASS team also distinguished itself at the Games as its representative won the bronze medal in the women’s table tennis competition.
Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and EEC won the men’s and women’s chess tournaments, respectively, with a MFA employee winning medals in both categories.
There also exciting battles on the billiard tables, the podium was shared by athletes from the Russian (1st place), Kazakh (2nd place) and Uzbek (3rd place) Ministries of Foreign Affairs.
The event’s special atmosphere was strengthened by a gastro fest from the Russian Gastronomic Map chefs led by the project’s founder Ekaterina Shapovalova. Remarkably, the project team arrived at Moscow Country Club immediately after Russia as a Family of Families, a large-scale marathon organized by the Znanie Society on February 5 at the Russia National Center to mark the Year of Unity of the Peoples of Russia and inaugurated by President Vladimir Putin.
The chefs offered traditional dishes from across Russia. Irina and Alexey Votintsev, founders of the Udmurt restaurant chain Perepechkin, baked 500 perepechi pies in an outdoor wheeled Russian oven. Vladimir Yashev, founder of the New Russian Pelmeni chain, cooked skoblyanka made with Altai marbled beef, maral deer meat dumplings in lamb broth and served with Altai teerpek bread. Svetlana Bokova, founder of the Far Eastern restaurant Kamchatka House, and chef Alexander Kuleshov presented Far Eastern fish soup with Kamchatka crab, Commander crab, Magadan shrimp, kelp, sockeye salmon and Russian pollock. Ekaterina Mun, founder of the Arctic restaurant chain, and chef Andrey Vinogradov invited the participants of the winter festival to taste taiga solyanka with Lovozero venison in barrel-fermented pickle brine, lingonberries and pine nuts, and tea served from Tula samovars.
The diplomatic corps were enjoying iconic traditional dishes from everywhere in Russia. Valeria and Nikolay Atlasovs (Tygyn Darkhan), chefs Ivan Reshetnikov (Sedmoye Nebo), Konstantin Matannanov (Tygyn Darkhan) and Azbuka Severa chef Sergey Fedoseyev cooked Far North food, such as stroganina and Indigirka salad. In addition, foreign guests tasted kalitki pies from There Is Something in Karelia ethnocultural project, Dagestan Lavka’s chudu stuffed flatbread, honey cakes, crêpes, pancakes and pollock roe ikryanniki pancakes from Kamchatsky Dom and the Russian Fishery Company, Pomor pomakukha fish stew, crab dumplings, Don-originated merchant-style bread pots, Far Eastern pine nuts from the Tourist Information Center of the Primorsky Territory, EkoNiva cheeses from the Black Earth Region and Sugreff tea collection called Peoples of Russia.
In addition, organizers set there a play area with amusements and entertainment competitions for both adults and children to enjoy the festivities.
As a memento of the day spent at Moscow Country Club, guests took vibrant photographs in the fabulous art space known as Visiting the Fish, home of the Goldfish, the informal GlavUpDK mascot.
