Has a penchant for judo: Vladimir Putin (here 2019)
Image: Reuters
The international judo federation breaks away from Russian President Vladimir Putin, but continues to let Russian athletes fight. Everything else is violence, they say. Crazy.
Msome sports fans are talking about a turning point, because the sports associations are trying to impose sanctions after Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Take the International Judo Federation IJF. The weekend before last, Putin’s war of aggression raged on for the fourth day, the IJF, under the leadership of Marius Vizer, a Romanian with an Austrian passport, canceled the warlord’s honorary presidency. On Sunday, the IJF announced that Putin was removed from all positions in the association. And: Putin’s judo friend Arkady Rotenberg, who had previously worked as a development manager on the IJF board, had also been expedited.
Look here: Marius Vizer tough as nails? Maybe hard calculating. Who knows how the war in Ukraine will end? Because while the news about the dealings with Putin and Rotenberg brings the hoped-for headlines, the Russian and Belarusian judoka remain on the mat as supposedly neutral fighters. With justifications that are as coldly calculating as they are creative – and give an insight into the level at which Vizer places itself in this game.
#Russias #war #sport #icecold #officials