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(Mr President, Your Royal Highness, Your Excellencies, My Lords, Ladies and Gentlemen)

Richard the Toastmaster at Russian event in Kensington Palace

On June 10th, I had the honour of acting as Toastmaster at a prestigious dinner in Kensington Palace. The event, hosted by HRH Prince Michael of Kent was held to promote awareness of Sambo, a martial art whose genesis is from judo in Russia and is hoped to become a new Olympic sport. President Putin is firmly in support of its status elevation and he delivered a personal message read out by the Russian Ambassador.

Among the guests were prominent Russian politicians, athletes and personalities. All announcements and speeches required consecutive translation by interpreters. This was the first time I had ‘heard myself’ in Russian and I must say how impressive my words sounded!