Traditionally, the completion was open by welcome speeches of Mr. Alexander Dudin, the General Director of JSC AECC and Mr. Gleb Efremov, the General Director of JSC IUEC. In his speech Mr. Dudin congratulated the participants and guests with the 18-th in the account competition on the ice of Lake Baikal and wished all participants to have brilliant victories, excellent catch and good mood. Mr. Efremov expressed his thankfulness to the collective of JSC AECC for fruitful cooperation in resolution not only production issues, but also in arrangement of joint social events in the region. He also thanked the management of AECC and its trade-union organization for support in attribution to the event starting with 2017 of a new status, i.e A.E. Lebedev Cup Trophy.

This large-scale and bright sports holiday contributes to the implementation of the principal priority of the state policy of Russia in popularization of healthy lifestyle and development of mass sports. As it was remarkably said by Russian writer and publicist Mr. Valentin Rasputin: «It's so good that we have Baikal! Mighty, rich, majestic, wonderful by many and many beauties, royal and unopened, unshakeable - it's so good that we have it». And, it is here, on the Baikal ice traditionally takes place the most spectacular competitions on the ice-fishing as an active type of recreation and a way of development of careful attitude to nature and aquatic bioresources.