Moscow (AP) – Oligarch Alisher Usmanow is resigning from his position as President of the World Fencing Federation FIE with immediate effect because of the sanctions imposed on him by the European Union.
In a statement, the 68-year-old Russian described the measures as unfair. The reasons given to justify the EU’s sanctions are “a series of false and defamatory allegations” that damage his honour, dignity and business reputation.
Usmanov, who has been the Fencer’s president since 2008, intends to suspend his duties “until justice is restored,” the statement said. Economic sanctions had been imposed by the EU against the billionaire close to the Kremlin and other oligarchs because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It was only in November that Usmanov began his fourth term as FIE President. According to calculations by the industry service “insidethegames”, he is said to have donated around 77 million euros to the world association between 2008 and 2020. In 2020, Usmanow also acquired a historical document from Pierre des Coubertin, the initiator of the modern Olympic Games, for almost 8 million euros and donated it to the Olympic Museum in Lausanne.