We don’t talk to the Russians – but we play with them

(KL) – IOC boss Thomas Bach did a great job when he recommended to the world sports associations that they like the athletes from the countries of his buddies Vladimir Putin and Alexander Lukashenko at the international competitions and, above all, at the Olympic Games in 2024 compete in Paris. As if no war were raging, but apparently Thomas Bach owes the villains of this world a debt. There is no other way to explain why the man acts as if everything is fine in this world. Once again, the Ukrainians are suffering.

Then everything fits together again. A World Judo Championships in Doha/Qatar, the usual “whitewashing” of a country that doesn’t take human rights very seriously, plus the permission for Russians and Belarusians to compete as if there were no war, angry Ukrainians who Understandably boycott the World Cup and the German Judo Federation (DJB) wobbles into a lukewarm position, which is basically no position at all. On the one hand, the association criticizes the participation of Russian and Belarusian judoka in this World Cup, but on the other hand, they go there and look forward to a “completely normal” competition with athletes from the country that is currently sweeping the world with a new world war. That eight members of the Russian delegation failed a “background check” and are barred from traveling to Doha because of their all too obvious support for the war is sheer window dressing. And judo friend Putin once again gets what he wants.

The argument for the participation of German judoka in this again scandalous World Championships in Qatar is that the athletes should collect important qualifying points for the Olympic Games at these World Championships. And that, of course, is much more important than a clear signal to Russia that they do not want anything to do with this country until the aggressive war in Ukraine is over. But once again there is probably a lot of money involved, petrodollars from Qatar and rubles from Moscow. Which sports association says no to that?

The attitude of the Western sports associations is downright pathetic, and to come up with the announcement in the second year of the war that “this war must not be fought on the backs of the athletes” becomes embarrassing. What about the hundreds of Ukrainian athletes who have already been killed in this war?

It is about time that the audience of this sporting event reacted with Russian and Belarusian participation, both at the major events leading up to the Olympic Games and at Paris 2024 itself the boycott. And you should think about it seriously, because these corrupt events, which have now been highly politicized by the bosses of the association, stink to high heaven, as does the attitude of those responsible.

The world is just getting crazier and has jettisoned every previous principle. It can’t be the case that we don’t talk to Russia, but we do sport happily!