Andrei, welcome to the most popular club in the country, how do you feel about the move? 

I am very pleased to come to Zenit, it is an exciting time, because for me the transfer to Zenit is a big challenge. This is an important step in achieving my dreams. Hopefully, in St. Petersburg, I will be successful and I will make every effort to be so. Now I feel a lot of responsibility and I want to quickly start training. 

You made their debut in the Premier League just six months ago, and now go you're at a club that's fighting for the championship and for the Europa League. Is this the best New Year's gift in your life? 

Absolutely! Everything in my career is developing very rapidly and unexpectedly. But my goals were set and now I'm getting them. One of my goals was to get to a top club, that is now complete. Now I have to prove my worth here. Again, everything is happening very quickly lately, but I'm just glad about this. 

Now you have to compete with Yuri Lodygin and Mikhail Kerzhakov, what do you think about that?
 
At every team I've had to deal with competition for my place, it is an integral part of professional sports and this will not go away, if you want to grow, you must be able to compete. So I am not afraid of competition, on the contrary, I'm looking forward to it. Everything will be decided in training, who is better, will be the number one. I just have to prove that it should be me. 

At Ufa you wore number 71, but here it's taken by another goalkeeper - Egor Baburin. What will you do? 

I'm not worried about my squad number, I just had it at Ufa, I would have liked to have it at Zenit, but if the number is busy, I will be happy to choose from those available. 

You were born and lived in Moscow, but now you're moving into one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. What do you know about St. Petersburg? 

I've been here just to play and have not particularly had a chance to see it. I know that this is a very beautiful city, the cultural capital of Russia and the birthplace of Vladimir Putin. But I will look around only when my wife comes here. Together we'll discover new places. But in any case, it's more important for me to be very useful to St. Petersburg with my play.