In our material, we decided to pay attention to a rather important area of public life in the occupied Crimea, namely sports. Since 2014, this sphere, like all others, has been methodically destroyed by Crimean collaborators on the Kremlin’s orders. However, we will be interested not only in this aspect.
The fact is that after the start of a full-scale invasion, the Russian occupiers began to use the “Crimean sport” as a propaganda tool and justify their senseless aggression. We will also pay attention to the “development of sports” in the occupied Crimea under the sanctions that were applied to the aggressor-controlled “athletes”.
Let us point out right away that even here the Crimean collaborators are trying to create a parallel reality and wishful thinking. The situation and facts were analyzed by the experts of the Association of Reintegration of Crimea.
The main Crimean collaborator Sergei Aksyonov cynically proclaimed 2023 the “year of mass sports”, referring to the criminal occupiers’ “ministry of sports”. But there is more to read between the lines. In particular, the representative of the Crimean collaborators Olga Bezuglovets said that “mass sport is a powerful social force that can unite people”.
Thus, the Russian occupiers are criminally striving for the “Crimean sport” to supposedly “unify” the population in aggression against Ukraine. Of course, the “improvement of physical fitness” of the Crimean residents is considered by the Russian occupiers as a factor in the conduct of covert or overt criminal “mobilization”.
Of course, there is also a personal financial interest of the Crimean collaborators, because at the end of last year it was announced that over the next three years from the federal budget they would allegedly “provide 120 million rubles for the development of sports” in the occupied peninsula, of course, this amount is for the appetites of the Aksyonov and Konstantinov clans small, but such funds for theft “are not lying on the road”.
But the priority for the Crimean collaborators is not only the financial component, as they plan to promote the criminal Kremlin narratives “through sports”. Basically, we are talking about criminal attempts to spread anti-Ukrainian hysteria among Crimean residents, to “justify” armed aggression and to “condemn the world” for isolating the aggressor.
So, at the end of October 2022, in the village of Agrarne, a “football match of veterans of the teams” “Tavria” and “Mariupol” took place, in which Oleksandr Gaydash, who once played for the Ukrainian national football team, took part. After the beginning of the occupation of the peninsula, he declared fake “Russian citizenship” and became the fake “general director” of the “Simferopol club” “TSK”.
Several other former Ukrainian football players also took part in this match, including Yevgen Taran and Andriy Pilipenko. Before the start of the match, they all came out in T-shirts with ruscist letters “Z” and “V” [1].
It is obvious that the Crimean collaborators, by trying to promote a popular sports game, are trying to spread propaganda of hatred and war, as a fundamental element of the criminal anti-Ukrainian policy of the Kremlin on the occupied peninsula.
Let us note that football is only part of the problem, since an almost similar situation occurs in other sports. In particular, since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, the “Russian tennis federation” has regularly held illegal “tournaments” in the occupied Crimea, the purpose of which is to propagate the Kremlin’s policy. These fake “tournaments” are supposedly held for “amateurs”, their organizers have not yet come under the sanctions of world sports institutions. By the way, on February 23 of this year, this federation published a “greeting”, which criminally spoke about the Russian military, who allegedly “perform a feat in Ukraine” [2].
Other “athletes” from the occupied Crimea also avoid the sanctions of world sports institutions, in particular, the fake “President of the federation of synchronized swimming” from the occupiers Anna Nasekina managed not only to actively support Russia’s armed aggression against Ukraine, but even open her own sports school in Riga [3] .
Experts note that thanks to the criminal activities of such “athletes”, Crimean children illegally represent the aggressor state in various sports competitions, and the Kremlin is trying to sell all this to the world as fake “Crimean narratives”.
Crimean collaborators actively involve sub-sanctioned “Russian athletes” in propaganda of war on the occupied peninsula, we are talking about illegal “tours” and criminal statements about the alleged “belonging of Crimea” to the aggressor and about his alleged “victory over Ukraine”.
Among these “tourists” it is necessary to note the Russian champion in Greco-Roman wrestling Yevgen Baidusov, who last year held illegal demonstration “trainings” in the occupied Crimea and distinguished himself by pro-Russian statements for local propaganda, as well as the “world and European champion” in Greco-Roman wrestling Chasovnikov, with similar propaganda criminal acts [4].
The behavior of such Russian “athletes” is predictable, because they are, in particular, due to their own behavior, under sanctions and are trying to take revenge on the whole world by spreading hate speech and Kremlin narratives. Let us recall that at the end of March of this year, the International Olympic Committee, although very inconsistently, nevertheless established the grounds for not allowing Russian “athletes” to compete in 2024: this is support for the war against Ukraine, the existence of a contract with Russian military structures such as “Dynamo” or “CSKA” clubs, the prohibition of the team participation of Russians and Belarusians [5].
Considering that the so-called “Russian sports elite” has long criminally publicly supported the armed aggression against Ukraine, they can forget about participating in the Olympic competitions. Under such conditions, they criminally travel to the occupied Crimea and try to spread the Kremlin’s narratives among ordinary Crimean residents.
It is important what they are doing with the criminal support of the Crimean collaborators, who are also interested in shaping the mood on the occupied peninsula that the aggressor needs. The collaborators are doing everything possible to ensure that such criminal “tours” take place on an ongoing basis, including the “material and technical base”, and here the situation with “sports” is very reminiscent of the criminal “entry into Crimea” of sanctioned Russian banks. Consequently, the Kremlin elite is not trying to “save the reputation of Russian sports”, but to create the illusion of its “development” on the occupied Ukrainian peninsula.
Recently, the aggressor’s minister of sports criminally proclaimed 13 “priority sports” that “should be developed” in the occupied Crimea. We are talking about: “football, wrestling, boxing, gymnastics, sailing, weightlifting and athletics, judo and others”.
Almost all of these sports in Russia itself have representatives who fell under sanctions after their support for the war against Ukraine. As a result, it is not necessary to count on participation, and even more so Olympic medals in these types of competitions. And for the Crimean collaborators, there is a personal interest here.
The fact is that they still criminally count on the inclusion of “Crimean athletes” in the Olympic teams in these sports, in particular, by imitating the “Russian status” of these “athletes”.
Let us recall that the collaborators are criminally promoting the “entry into the Russian league” of eight so-called “professional football clubs of Crimea” in 2023-2024. That is, “Crimean sport” is still criminally regarded as a political tool of the occupying “authorities”. It should be noted that since 2014, football in the occupied peninsula has been used by the aggressor solely as a propaganda tool.
By the time international sports institutions were sanctioned, the Russia’s ministry of sports was in no hurry to allow “Crimean football teams” to participate in the Russian championships and tried to “carefully bypass” the requirements of the relevant FIFA and UEFA recommendations [6]. But today the Kremlin criminally decided to use “all available tools” to “save the situation” with the defeats and discredit of its own army in Ukraine.
At the same time, the rhetoric of the Crimean collaborators also changed, which at a certain stage pointedly “supported the boycott” of the Olympics, which will be held in 2024 in Paris. The invaders extremely cynically used even the “Crimean Paralympic athletes”, who were criminally placed in front of the cameras to “support and thank” the Russian military, who are killing Ukrainians.
Recently, it has become a common practice on the occupied peninsula to conduct criminal “support actions” for sanctioned “Russian athletes”, who can no longer take part in world-class sports competitions. That is, it is obvious that there is a corresponding illegal instruction from the Kremlin, which the Crimean collaborators “methodically” carry out.
In addition to the illegal use of “Crimean sports” as an ideological weapon, Crimean collaborators criminally force “athletes” to fight against Ukraine. In particular, in early April of this year, it became known that the fake “chairman of parliament” Vladimir Konstantinov criminally “persistently suggested” that “Crimean athletes” go to the front and “change their sports uniforms to military ones” in order to “respond to the sanctions of international sports institutions” [7].
It is noteworthy that Konstantinov himself does not “change his uniform” as a “symbol of protest against the sanctions” covering him personally, and he does not really want to die for the “Russian world”. Most likely, this swindler-collaborator plans to flee to the Russian Federation and live out his life on the billions stolen from the Crimean residents.
In the meantime, the Crimean collaborators have “adjusted the temniks” and are playing another criminal role – to use the “Crimean sport” to “glorify” the aggressor state. In particular, the main Crimean collaborator Sergei Aksyonov said that supposedly “no sanctions will prevent Crimean athletes from achieving victories in Russian and international competitions”.
It is quite significant that Sergei Aksyonov himself had said shortly before that “Crimean sports teams” cannot, for objective reasons, take part in “all-Russian competitions”, since there are corresponding bans from international federations and “problems with licensing Crimean clubs”. It seems that such contradictory statements are due to the fact what exactly Kremlin curators of the criminal “head of Crimea” want to hear at the present time.
Any news related to the “admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes” to international competitions is especially actively discussed in the pro-Russian “media” of the occupied peninsula, collaborators directly report each such case as a “victory” of the aggressor state. Collaborators also criminally seek to cultivate hatred for Ukraine on the basis of “news” about the losses of the aggressor’s army, including those who are somehow “involved in the sport” of the occupied Crimea. For example, Crimean collaborators recently discussed the death of the son of the former “minister of sports of Crimea” Georgy Shestak, as aggressor’s cannon fodder [8].
The criminal militarization and aggression propaganda has become total for the entire “sports life” of the occupied Crimea. Thus, the Internet resources of the criminal “Ministry of sports” of the occupiers resemble the propaganda sites of the Kremlin, the corresponding pages on social networks are filled with “approving verses” in “honor” of the Russian military, videos of Putin’s “military” speeches, fakes about “Ukrainian nationalists and fascists” , as well as ridiculous attempts to “rebut” Russia’s war crimes in Ukraine.
On such “sports resources”, directly “news about sports events” on the occupied peninsula occupy about 30 %, everything else is criminal political propaganda and attempts to “justify” aggression against Ukraine.
Let us recall that, understanding the real situation with sports in the occupied Crimea, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people called on the Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee to completely ban the participation of “Russian and Belarusian athletes” in the 2024 Olympic Games, because their admission would mean unlawful tolerance for the occupation of Crimea and the armed aggression of Russia against Ukraine as a whole [9]. This is the civilized way of condemning the Kremlin’s war crimes in Ukraine, including the Crimea, in the sporting dimension.
Crimean collaborators, together with Russia, naturally, are moving in a radically different, criminal way. It provides for the total militarization of “Crimean sports”, the use of “Crimean athletes” as a criminal tool for distorting public opinion, involving them in countering world sports sanctions and in criminally supporting the aggression of Russia against Ukraine, as well as establishing total control of the aggressor over “sports federations” . We should not forget about the attempts of collaborators to incite “Crimean athletes” to directly participate in hostilities against Ukraine.
Obviously, such a criminal policy leads to the decline of the sport itself on the occupied peninsula, although, obviously, this is not of interest to the Crimean collaborators, who thoughtlessly carry out the criminal instructions of the Kremlin curators.
Sources:
- https://www.ua-football.com/ua/ukrainian/news/1666865297-viyshli-u-futbolkah-z-literami-z-ta-v-eks-gravec-zbirnoyi-ukrayini-zigrav-match-v-okupova nomu-krimu.html
- https://glavcom.ua/sport/news/federatsija-tenisu-rosiji-peretvorila-aneksovanij-krim-na-vlasnu-bazu–911495.html
- https://glavcom.ua/sport/news/ochilnitsja-federatsiji-v-aneksovanomu-krimu-vidkrila-v-krajini-jes-shkolu-sinkhronnoho-plavannja-909495.html
- https://argumentua.com/stati/ros-isk-z-sportsmeni-dos-ne-pokaran-za-p-dtrimku-v-ini-nav-t-v-ukra-n
- https://glavcom.ua/sport/publications/kremlivska-fanera-nad-parizhem-zirki-rosijskoho-sportu-jaki-prolitajut-povz-olimpiadu-spisok-919310.html
- https://injir.org/kryimskiy-futbolnyiy-zastoy-kak-v-kryimu-razvivaetsya-samyiy-populyarnyiy-sport-v-mire-14-12-2021/
- https://qirim.news/novosti-uk/kolaborant-konstantynov-vidpravlyaye-sportsmeniv-na-front/
- https://podrobnosti.ua/2470788-zsu-lkvduvali-sina-mnstra-sportu-okupovanogo-krimu.html
- https://www.ukrinform.ua/rubric-crimea/3688468-medzlis-zaklikav-mok-ne-dopustiti-rosijskih-ta-biloruskih-sportsmeniv-na-olimpijski-igri.html
