Black belt wearer Vladimir Putin in a judo suit outwits his opponent or plays ice hockey together with his sports friend Alexander Lukashenko, ruler of Belarus.
There are some pictures of the Russian President doing sports. And many with the string pullers of world sport: Vladimir Putin with Gianni Infantino, the president of the world football association, with Thomas Bach, the head of the International Olympic Committee or most recently with Xi Jinping, China’s head of state at the opening of the Winter Olympics.
Picture “Putin and Sport” changes
The image of “Putin and sport” is now changing. Hesitantly, bit by bit and under great public pressure. Russia is becoming more and more isolated in terms of sport. Most recently also in world football and the international associations in the Olympic sports.
That will affect Putin because he uses the sport. Successes and major sporting events in Russia are demonstrations of power, both internally and externally.
Football associations FIFA and UEFA have banned Russia from international competitions. The IOC recommends its member associations not to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to take part in international competitions. Russia is also isolated in other sports.
For the Russian President, every means is right. Even state-orchestrated doping, like at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
Sport after doping too cowardly for consistent action
At that time, positive doping samples from Russian athletes were exchanged for negative ones in the laboratory at night. After that, Russian athletes were only allowed to compete at the Olympics as “neutral athletes from Russia”, without anthem and flag – but they were there. The sport was too cowardly for an exclusion and thus for consistent action, hiding behind the nonsensical narrative that it was apolitical or neutral.
Also because Putin’s Russia had created financial dependencies. For example, the state energy company Gazprom was still a sponsor of the European football association UEFA until Monday. And that’s just one example.
Obviously it needed a war of aggression
It’s terrible: apparently it took a war of aggression to silence the tellers of the tale of a politically neutral sport.
Kempe: “Sport was part of Putin’s masquerade”
World sport has been looking for close proximity to Vladimir Putin for years and sport has never criticized the situation in Russia, said sport policy expert Robert Kempe on Dlf. Putin also used sport in a targeted manner to present his country as harmless and philanthropic.
Above all, the bosses of the International Olympic Committee and the World Football Association FIFA. For years they made it possible for their friend Putin to make a big appearance on the sports stage and now they finally realized: the judoka screwed them.
Russia had twice broken the Olympic truce and gotten away with it. Only now, the third time, it’s different.
Sport exclusion more than a symbolic act
World sport finally no longer offers Putin a stage. Deprives him of medals and honorary posts. This is much more than a symbolic act and also has an internal effect. The Russian people will wonder where their sports stars are and where the medals are. And where are the sports greats of the world who come to Russia and hug their president in the stands. Russia is no longer allowed to play. This will hit an aggressor like Putin, who presents himself as a sportsman and needs the power to exercise.