Since Thursday, February 24, everything has changed for Russia. By launching a military offensive on Ukrainian soil, Moscow has crossed a point of no return on the international scene. Political, geopolitical and economic reactions have been numerous, including in the world of sport. Many international sports federations, including Fifa and UEFA, have excluded or suspended Russian and Belarusian athletes from upcoming competitions.
“By its scale and speed, this almost total exclusion of Russia by all of the global sports movement is unprecedented in history”, notes Lukas Aubin, doctor in geopolitics, specialist in Russia and sport. “What happens was unimaginable a week ago, confirms Jean-Baptiste Guégan, teacher in the geopolitics of sport. We are in something new, in a scheme where we cannot use the reading grids of the past. It’s not the Cold War, we’re beyond it.”
In a few days, Russia has become an outcast, isolated from everyone. However, not so long ago, his position on the world sports scene was quite different.
Since coming to power in 2000, Vladimir Putin has never ceased to restore Russia to its sporting power of yesteryear, and thereby a international influence. These choices are articulated around a fairly clear narrative, according to Lukas Aubin: “He highlights the fact that without sport he could not have become a man, out of the Leningrad slums [Saint-Pétersbourg]and that without him, he would have become a thug.” “Qhen Vladimir Putin comes to power, one of his first decisions is to bring Anatoli Rakhline, his former judo coach, whom he met when he was 11, to the Kremlin. The use of sport through its politics begins at this point”, continues the researcher
The master of the Kremlin then used drastic means, in particular by appealing to the oligarchs to finance his projects in this area, to politicians to organize them, and to athletes or former high-level champions to promote him.
/2022/03/02/php2t9bHG.jpg)
The country has also organized two of the three biggest sporting events in the space of ten years: the Winter Olympics in 2014, and the FIFA World Cup in 2018.
“Between 2005 and 2015, Russia applied very regularly, almost systematically, to host the biggest sporting events on the planet. And overall, this strategy worked.”
Lukas Aubin, doctor in geopolitics, specialist in Russia and sportat franceinfo: sport
Thus, the Russia asserted itself throughout the 2010s as a key player in sport. “Putin has completely succeeded in reaffirming Russian sporting power on the international scene. He has managed to restore it to a place which was that of the USSR”, notes Jean-Baptiste Guégan.
But at the same time, Moscow also showed a completely different face which gradually seized up the machine. Putin’s 2014 annexation of Crimea was criticized beyond Russia’s borders, even though the sanctions were far less than today’s. On a purely sporting level, the golden image of Russia was tarnished just after the Sochi Games, with the revelations of the scandal of systematic doping of Russian athletes.
/2022/03/02/php2RnRNh.jpg)
“At that point, we begin to see the dark side of the regime, continues Jean-Baptiste Guégan. ATIn other words, the instrumentalization of sport is done without limits and without counterfire, with a priority given to results more than to the development of a respectful and rigorous public policy of the rules and the athletes. The international responses are then heavier, with the exclusion of Russia from international competitions, even if the country’s athletes have been able to continue to compete under a neutral banner.
The Ukrainian conflict has therefore led to an unprecedented hardening of positions in the world of sport. “Today, the rupture is historic. It is the end of the outward apoliticism of all sports institutions, which have aligned themselves with a decision of the IOC.”
“In recent years, we have gone from suspicion to condemnation, then to a situation of exclusion. The geopolitical reaffirmation of Russian power on the world stage has been led by sport, it will also be paid for by sport. “
Jean-Baptiste Guégan, teacher in the geopolitics of sportfrance info: sports
Will Russia retain this pariah status for long? “It’s very difficult to say at the moment,” believes Lukas Aubin. For the experts interviewed, the consequences will depend on how Russia emerges from the conflict, and whether Vladimir Putin remains in charge of the country. “The diplomatic and geopolitical resolution of the conflict will have a direct bearing on whether or not Russia will return to sport, and where, emphasizes Jean-Baptiste Guégan. If the conflict ends with negotiations and a ceasefire, obviously all the international federations will reopen their doors to Russian athletes, because they are not responsible.” Otherwise, the mobilizations could continue.
“At some point, we will have to rebuild the bridges with Russia. But the questions that arise are: with whom at the head, and in what context?”, asks Lukas Aubin. The latter specifies that unlike the annexation of Crimea in 2014, “a good part of the Russian population and those close to Putin are not in unconditional support for this invasion”.
However, whatever happens geopolitically, Russia will not stop wanting to express itself on the world sports scene. “We will not take away from Russia either its sporting potential, nor the desire of Russians to play sport and shine there, nor to wear their colors”, concludes Jean-Baptiste Guégan.