In Putin Team Russia: Olympic champions like Alexander Legkov (l.) and Yuri Borzakovsky (r.) or world champions like Nikita Kryukov are publicly promoting the president.
Photo: imago/Mikhail Tereshchenko
Putin’s team. Under this name, politicians, artists and scientists gather in Russia to support the president. They even created their own fashion brand. Sport is one of the most important fields of action. Vladimir Putin repeatedly appears at rallies with former and current top Russian athletes – part of a large-scale political campaign that is expected to result in the president’s re-election next weekend.
For example, there is Sergei Karjakin, who grew up in Crimea in Ukraine but is now a proud citizen of Russia. The world champion in rapid and blitz chess from 2012 and 2016, who made it to the tiebreak in the classic version against dominator Magnus Carlsen in the fight for the World Cup crown in 2016, was long considered a role model for the country’s chess-playing youth . Since 2022, Karjakin has supported the invasion of Ukraine with often very pathetic words. This seems to be the end of his international career, as he was explicitly excluded from the International Chess Federation Fide, unlike other Russians. However, he is often a guest of honor at Russian youth competitions, including in occupied Ukrainian territories such as Donbass.
The taekwondo fighter Vladislaw Larin, who grew up in the far west of Russia, won gold at the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. He recently released a video soliciting donations for the Russian military. Other successful athletes such as the wrestler Abdulrashid Sadulayev, the figure skater Kamila Valiyeva, who was recently banned for doping, or the former national soccer player Andrei Arshavin appear with Putin at major events. With such actions, which are broadcast on state television, Putin apparently wants to give the population a feeling of normality and unity – while Russian soldiers are fighting and dying in Ukraine.
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially wants to prevent the upcoming Summer Games in Paris from becoming a platform for Putin’s messages. Athletes from Russia and from Belarus, which supported the war, are therefore only allowed to compete individually, and only as “neutral athletes”. Their national symbolism with anthems, coats of arms and flags is prohibited. Another condition: The athletes are not allowed to have any ties to the Russian military and security organs. Anyone who supported the war in Ukraine should also not be allowed to take off.
How can this be checked? Is the retransmission of pro-state content on social media considered support for the war? In addition, top-class sport in Russia is closely linked to the security apparatus. More than 10,000 athletes train at the Central Army Sports Club (CSKA) in Moscow alone. Dynamo Moscow, with its historical proximity to the secret service, also plays a significant role. There were 209 Russian active participants at the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, 34 of whom were members of the security organs, 15 of whom even had officer rank.
As in other countries, athletes in Russia are dependent on government aid in most disciplines due to a lack of private sponsors. Many athletes who join the Army complete basic training but are not necessarily interested in military service. Of the participants in Beijing, 13 were also members of the National Guard, the Rosgvardiya. This unit, which reports directly to Putin, is deployed in combat operations in Ukraine and has been subject to sanctions by the EU.
The attitude in Russia towards international sports associations such as the IOC is inconsistent. Olympic high jump champion Marija Lassizkene would forego the anthem and flag to take part in the Olympics. Other athletes embed these requirements into an anti-Western narrative. For swimmer Yevgeny Rylov, a two-time gold medalist in Tokyo, it is clear: “I would never travel to Paris under these conditions.” As an open supporter of Putin’s policies, he is probably not eligible to take part anyway.
Athletes who express criticism of Putin are putting their salaries, training places and now also their freedom at risk. Since the start of the war, around 250 competitive athletes have left Russia, and many of them are now competing for other countries. International stars such as ice hockey player Alexander Ovechkin or tennis professional Andrei Rublev, who have been living abroad for years, choose their words carefully, possibly to protect their families and friends in Russia. They speak out for peace without directly criticizing Putin.
Anyone who competes in Paris as a “neutral athlete” will of course not be portrayed as neutral in Russian state media, but rather as an ambassador for an emerging superpower that was still one of the most important hosts of world sport in the 2010s – as with the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2018 World Cup. Reality looks different today. Russian world champions and Olympic champions hardly appear internationally anymore, but compete against each other in regional competitions in front of a few hundred spectators. State television often broadcasts these events at great expense. Sometimes ministers stop by and give speeches, while banners and commercials advertise the recruitment of soldiers.
Russian sport today – even more than before – has to subordinate itself to domestic political goals. Football clubs in Crimea such as FC Sevastopol and Rubin Yalta were integrated into the Russian league operation. The National Olympic Committee (ROC) has also tied up the sports administrations in the occupied regions of Ukraine. Because this violates the Olympic Charter, the ROC was suspended by the IOC.
Russian influence in world sport has declined sharply, but has not completely disappeared. Gazprom boss Alexander Dyukov still sits on the executive committee of the European football association. Two members of the IOC come from Russia: ex-tennis player Shamil Tarpishchev and former pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva. As an employee of the Ministry of Defense, Isinbayeva holds the rank of major. She had often appeared with Putin, visited Russian soldiers in Syria and was part of the committee that changed the constitution in the president’s favor.
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