Russia proud of Olympic torch space relay

Russia is proud of the space relay of the Olympic torch for the Sochi Winter Games, organising committee president Dmitry Chernyshenko said Sunday.

If any country can surpass Russia's endeavour to send the Olympic torch on a spacewalk, Chernyshenko would like to see them try, Xinhua cited him as saying.

"We have shown the entire world what we are capable of very vividly... If anyone can do better, let them try," sports media R-Sport quoted Chernyshenko as saying.

Two Russian cosmonauts took the Olympic torch on a spacewalk Saturday for the first time in the history as part of the Sochi 2014 torch relay.

The torch, unlit for safety reasons, was taken out from the capsule of the International Space Station around 1450 GMT Saturday by cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergey Ryazanskiy.

Millions of people around the world followed the live webcast of the event.

"The reaction across the globe has been extremely positive. Everyone has been talking about it. It had immense attention and there has been real respect, without irony, that Russia has put a torch in space," Chernyshenko said.

According to the official, the idea behind the space relay was to unite the whole nation around this event.

The torch will stay at the International Space Station till Monday before it will be brought back to Earth by Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, US astronaut Karen Nyberg and Italian Luca Parmitano.

The "space" torch will be used to lit the main Olympic flame during the opening of the Sochi Winter Olympics Feb 7.