With the Russians, the competitor turns his back on Ukraine, writes Joonas Kuisma.
Russian president Vladimir Putin plays with international sports like a giant marionette. By pulling the strings, Putin has caused the sport to lurch to the west and bend towards the east.
In the past, Putin’s favorite hockey players, for example, brought the NHL to their knees. Some of the Russian players refused to wear warm-up shirts for pride matches for “religious reasons”, which caused the NHL to reflexively ban the use of various rainbow emblems. However, it was probably the laws oppressing homosexuals in Russia, i.e. Putin’s policy, that were behind it instead of religion.
Although Russia’s brutal war of aggression has continued, the country’s athletes have been allowed to play tennis or balls in club teams as if nothing had happened.
Now the board of the International Olympic Committee made the expected and logical decision against this background. Under certain conditions, Russian athletes are allowed to participate in the Paris Olympics in the summer of 2024.
of the IOC the decision comes at an explosive moment in terms of the war in Ukraine. Ukraine’s counteroffensive did not produce the desired results, and political pressure is growing both within the country and among its allies. Earlier this week, the US Senate voted down a $110 billion emergency funding package, half of which was intended for Ukraine.
An enraged US president Joe Biden accused Senate Republicans of giving Putin “the biggest possible gift.”
Now, another hard package was dropped under the Kremlin’s Christmas tree from the IOC.
When Russian athletes participate in the Olympics in the summer, at the same time, in the eyes of the world, the situation is normalized in which Russia is involved in everyday life, even though it is at the same time destroying Ukraine with its missiles.
Together with the athletes, Putin swims his dark tentacle to the heart of Europe and the West, to the city of light, Paris, from where he then undermines the unity of the West in supporting Ukraine.
Finland is an experienced expert on Russia. It knows that you can’t even give Putin the little finger, because soon he’ll have his whole hand covered.
Now we have to put hard against hard.
Therefore, the Finnish Olympic Committee and above all the athletes now have to make a tough decision. Finland must be a trend-setter and a conversation starter, bringing Western countries to a common front against the IOC’s shock decision.
The message must be clear: If the Russians come to Paris, we will not.
Ukraine has been fighting a brutal and heavy war alone for almost two years, in which the balance of power and security of the whole of Europe is at stake.
If you compete with the Russians next summer as if nothing had happened, you will turn your back on the heroic efforts and suffering of the Ukrainians.
Then it’s unhelpful to be on the wrong side of history.
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