I was introduced to lifting weights when I was 14 in 1978. That is when I began my so to speak career in Olympic weightlifting. Starting with my own body weight at 54 kg I had gone in 6 years all a way up to 90 kg, and finished it when I was 20 with 140 kg snatch and 180 kg C&J. I used to like also a full squat, and couple of times won some powerlifting meets with 230 kg result.
At 20 I was done with active OL, went to university in Moscow. While studying I was active in running, skiing and KB lifting. I never really worked very heavy with KBs, but still was able to be a champ at the university, and have taken 1st and 2nd places at National's University meets and Moscow's University meets.
But I never dedicated much of my time to train with KBs, it was more of a hobby, keeping myself in shape, and making trips across USSR for the competitions. My preference to KB over OL or other sports is probably due to a fact this is low maintenance kind of sport. You don't need much of space, you can take it with you on a short trip, it does not do much harm to you comparing for instance to OL,PL in a sense of getting injured. I like KB's for everything else that a readers who read this already know. It's all on KB forum and in Pavel's books.
Also you don't get pumped up very much, personally I don't like to be pumped up and always look at bodybuilders with some kind of feelings, something like, here is the shape, but is there any contains ?

Most if not all of the American competitiors complimented you on your technique. It was incredible. Did you learn it from a coach?

I had a OL coach when I began, he was OL lifter too when he was younger, then he switched to skiing, swimming, biking and KB lifting. He taught me basically how to lift in OL style. I have not trained or learned on purpose the KB technique. It just came naturally over time. Something like dog can swim with no training, I could lift bells.

What is the Mastery of Sports Ranking system and how is it used in Russia?

Ranking system is used in all sports in Russia and when you can meet MS level, it means probably a national recognition of you as dedicated, experienced, and talented athlete. I am not sure how exactly the ranking tables are calculated for each sport, but that is computed somehow based on average statistical results. For example if at any given year too many people become a MS, national sport association would lift the bar and make it more difficult to quilify.That is how qualification tables were getting changed each year in all kind of sports.

How big is GS in Russia?

I would not say GS is extremely popular there. This kind of sport is more close to marathon than to basketball. The fact is if you don't have an opportunity to become a millionare in one kind of sport, you tend to choose another one.
But I would say with certainty that KBs are known to majority of man in former USSR who served in military. That is probably 90% of guys. I think most of military divisions did have Kbs in their gyms. Also, I remember when I was a kid I always saw KBs for sale in local sports store. So it would be very surprising to me when you show KBs to any Russian man and he would not know what they are.

When you trained for the competition did you use a routine or more of a free style training?

I had used pretty much free style training with OL and KBs. The main idea while training, you need to train hard to win, but if you feel tired, overtrained, no desire to train, than you need to give yourself a break, maybe jog, run, swimm or play ball today instead of lifting. Each athlete is unique, and training approach should be unique. But standart approach in lifting is to train 3-5 days a week with 1-2 hour sessions. If competition is more than a month away, you should not be afraid to do a lot of lifts and push youself to the limits. Closer to competition you should make you session lighter, make training more intensive and use less KG volume so to speak. One week before competition train every other day and give yourself full rest for two days before the meet day.

What do you use for assistance exercises?

This is a tricky question. What to use for assistance exercises, depends very much on you goal. I am going to tell you the true secret, and it might sound contradictory to majority's opinion. If the goal is to do more snatches with 32 kg, you need to snacth 32 kg. If the goal is to do more C&J with 32 kg, you need to C&J 32 kg, not 40 or 24 kg. This is so called narrow profile specialization if I can use this term. You would not play chess very often for assistance exercises if you want to compete in bike race. This is very rough comparison, but that is to understand my point.
Same in KB, if you spend your energy too much for any other exercises, you may not have enough left for the needed lifts. I am not saying now that everybody must do only one exercise. I do not like it myself. But the truth is that you have to dedicate most of your time for special lifts if you want to be a champ. Personally I do any kind of snatches, presses, jerks, squats, as well as I like to bike, run, or play tennis when I feel like and have enough time.

Tell us about your warm-up for the competition and why you choose those exercises.

Choosing warmup excerzise is pretty much matter of preference as well. You just need to be warm, but not hot and tired. How fast you warm up depends on how warm or cold the environment temperature is also.
I generally would do 3-5 sets of either C&J or Snatches, 5-10 repetitions each.

Any final thoughts on the VA meet, organizers, and competitors?

The meet was great concidering this is first time for this kind of event. The future meets will use its experience to make improvements and modification. I think we are coming up with USA KB association in nearest future, and more standard and formal approach for future meets will be used.
I would encourage all athletes to compete anytime there is a chance,no matter what level of mastery they are. At competitions you can learn a lot of your own mistakes, learn from others and get inspired at the same time.