Russian athletes are barred from the Olympics because of Western Nazism, while Russia is unjustly accused of committing acts of aggression against Ukraine, pro-Kremlin propaganda writes.
NEWS: International sport is left broken after the exclusion of Russian athletes from competitions, the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova says. “The main reason is the West’s Nazism and nationalism, as athletes are removed from competitions because of their ethnicity, nationality or geographical affiliation. The world of sports is destroyed by excluding a state that has done so much for sports [...]”, Zakharova argues.
“They told us that the reason is our aggression, but we know very well that Russia committed no aggression against Ukraine. Rather, the West is waging a hybrid war against us”, the spokeswoman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia said.
NARRATIVES: 1. Russia is not an aggressor, but a victim of the hybrid war waged by the West. 2. Russian athletes are discriminated by the Nazi, racist and nationalist West.
BACKGROUND: The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has authorized 22 Russian and 17 Belarusian athletes to participate under a neutral flag in the Olympic Games in Paris. In order to be invited to the Olympic Games, the “individual neutral athletes” had to first go through the standard qualification process, as well as undergo a double check by international federations and international committees to certify they did not support the aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine. Russian authorities criticized the decision, accusing the IOC of discrimination and violation of fundamental Olympic principles.
On the other hand, the National Olympic Committee and the Ministry of Sports of Ukraine requested at the start of July that Russian athletes be banned from the Paris Olympics for expressing support for the Russian military, thus violating the principle of neutrality of sport.
PURPOSE: To justify Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, to consolidate the image promoted by propaganda according to which Russia is a state surrounded by external enemies.
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: In fact, Russia is an aggressor state that invaded unprovoked an independent country. While waging its war against Ukraine, Russia has also been trying to destroy or weaken the West through information warfare, propaganda, energy and nuclear blackmail, espionage, and by interfering in election campaigns in a number of states.
After the outbreak of full-scale war, the United Nations overwhelmingly voted a resolution condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine and calling for the immediate withdrawal of the Russian military from Ukraine. In March 2022, of the 193 UN members, 141 voted in favor of the resolution, 35 abstained, and 5 voted against (Russia, North Korea, Syria, Eritrea and Belarus). Russia's aggression was condemned by most international organizations, by world academia and politicians.
The exclusion of the Russian national team from various sports competitions, including the Olympic Games, is a direct consequence of Russia's large-scale invasion of Ukraine. The governing bodies of world sports decided to suspend Russian and Belarusian athletes after the start of the February 2022 invasion. Residents of Belarus and Russia will also not be able to watch the 2026 and 2028 Olympics on TV. Both countries were excluded from the list of countries with Olympics broadcasting rights.
The IOC's decision is not intended to destroy world sports, but to reduce the Russian sports community's support for the Putin regime and its decision to invade Ukraine.
