The leadership in exile Anti-Corruption Fund (FBK for its acronym in Russian), the NGO founded in 2011 by Alexei Navalnithe main leader of the opposition in Russia, -who is currently serving a sentence of more than a decade in prison in his native country- plans to write a letter to the Spanish government demanding the revocation of permission of residence of Yelena Isinbayevathe Russian athlete who holds the pole vault world record, ardent supporter of the president Vladimir Putin and arrival in Tenerife at the end of May with the aim of settling permanently on the Canary Island. This has been confirmed to EL PERIÓDICO Georgui Alburovauthor of an investigation on the athlete and activist of FBK, whose organization categorically rejects the recent allegations of the athlete herself disseminated in your instagram accountassuring that he was a person “of peace”, that he did not hold any position in the Army and that he was far from politics.
“Anyone who follows politics in Russia knows the important role that Isinbáyeva has had when it comes to supporting Putin; on several occasions she was her confidante in the elections; She was part of the working group (made up of important personalities from the world of culture, entertainment and sports, such as the former cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, NDR) to amend the Russian Constitution, which allowed Putin to rule the country for life”, denounces Alburov in an email sent to this newspaper. The blogger and journalist describes the attack as “absurd”. denial of Isinbáyeva about his military status: “He holds the rank of major, he has a military uniform, the fund he founded has been dedicated to raising money for the cathedral built by the Ministry of Defence and is currently collecting funds to help Russian soldiers in the war,” reveals the FBK researcher
important fortune
Without wanting to enter the origin of his important accumulated fortune During her sports career, which has allowed her to acquire luxury properties in an exclusive urbanization in the south of Tenerife, Alburov considers her public displays of support for the Putin regime sufficient to be included in the List of sanctioned Russian personalities. “We are finishing the preparation of the legal documents and we are going to send the Spanish authorities all the information we have; of course we will demand the immediate withdrawal of the documents (of Isinbáyeva’s residence) and her inclusion on the sanctioned list”, concludes the activist.
Identical analysis on the athlete performs The Association of Free Russianswhich brings together Russian citizens residing abroad against the Vladimir Putin’s regime. “In 2016, she became a member of Yunarmiya“, which in the opinion of Alexei Nesterenko, president of the opposition association, has a role in Russia “similar to hitler youth (Hitlerjugend in German), since they educate children from childhood in militarism and in the handling of weapons”.
The participation of Isinbáyeva, together with other prominent Russian personalities in the elaboration of the constitutional amendments that were approved in a controversial referendum, held in 2020 amid insistent allegations of electoral fraud, especially outrages the activist. “There is a video in which even Isinbáyeva admits that she had not even read the Magna Carta before joining the task force for its reform; apart from her lack of competence, this shows that she, along with the others, were simply there only to sign what the Kremlin asked of them,” Nesterenko explains.
An opportunist?
The Russian athlete born in Volgograd in 1982 has accumulated a considerable fortunewhich has allowed him to acquire properties in Tenerife whose value currently amounts to about three million euros, calculates Nesterenko, something difficult to imagine for an athlete of her discipline in the West. “All athletes affiliated with the State earn money from the State” for tasks such as the aforementioned of integrating a commission of personalities for the reform of the Basic Law. “Payments are legal, they are made officially, although de facto it is a bribe”, criticizes the activist.
“It’s the typical opportunist from Putin’s entourage; are people who, while everything’s fine, takes advantage of the system; when things go wrong, they discreetly take their money and go to another country to live, to wait for what happens; If there is a change, it cannot be ruled out that they return to Russia again,” he summarizes. Isinbáyeva, after all, what she does not want is “to live in a closed country,” concludes Nesterenko.
Despite the rain of criticism that she is receiving from official organizations and government press media in Russia for her march to Spain, Isinbáyeva continues to be highly appreciated by the Kremlin leader. To such an extent that in the last few hours, the presidential spokesman himself Dmitry Peskovhas publicly called for what he called “patriotic society” to refrain from condemning the athlete for settling in the Canary Islands. “She has not said anything, she has not criticized anything (in reference to the war) she simply fulfills her role (as a member of the International Olympic Committee); After all, where she lives is not important at all,” said the person in charge, quoted by the TASS agency.
Support for the Kremlin
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Support for state homophobia in Russia and the sentence to sanctions for doping against the Russian Olympic team are also part of Isinbáyeva’s curriculum. In 2013, during the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, a few months before the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, statedsurrounded by bodyguards: “We Russians consider ourselves normal, standard people, we just live as boys with girls and girls with boys; it comes from our history.”
In 2016, when it became known that the Russian athletics team would not be at the Rio de Janeiro Games, she attended an event that was held in the Kremlin where, wrapped in tears, she lashed out with unusual harshness against the leaders of world athletics: “We have come across the injustice and debauchery of a few who consider themselves with the right to create new rules,” she proclaimed, before imploring the “support” of Putin, who, at her side, dedicated smiling glances.