Paris (AFP)

Threatened with exclusion for four years from the Olympic and Paralympic Games for falsifying data submitted to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Russia remains a giant of the world sport, which knows how to play its economic and institutional weight to keep 'influence.

"We have always been and will be partners of international sports organizations in the development of sport and in the organization of competitions, and I think that all international organizations have an interest in ensuring that their level of cooperation with Russia remains the same".

The barely disguised threat to the international federations comes from Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov, the former swordsman, who succeeded the sulphurous Vitali Mutko in October 2016 in this key position in Russian sport.

It summarizes in two sentences the influence of Russia, a leading economic player, firmly established in international sports bodies and hosts events for which candidates are not legion.

. sponsors

With its multinational energy companies (Gazprom) or the banking sector (VTB), the Russian economy has invested in the sponsoring field of international sports federations.

Gazprom is the official sponsor of the Champions League, the premier football competition for clubs, as well as the American Mastercard (finance) or the Japanese Nissan (automobile).

The name of the oil giant, sponsor of Fifa until the 2018 World Cup, is also on the jerseys of major European clubs, such as Zenit St. Petersburg, Red Star Belgrade or Schalke 04.

Known for his strong ties with Vladimir Putin, former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, who holds positions in the energy company via Nord Stream, is also close to the President of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Thomas Bach - both have known each other via German politics.

VTB Bank is a major sponsor of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG). One of the three vice presidents of FIG, the Russian Vasily Titov, was the first vice-president.

Among the sanctions facing Russia at WADA is the ban on hosting world championships for four years. But the big event of sport business and international sports federations, Sport Accord, will take place in 2021 in Yekaterinburg, announced the organizers on November 30th.

. instances

This is the second aspect of the Russian sports superpower: its presence in governing bodies. One-third of the International Summer Olympic Sports Federations have a Russian representative in their executive committees, and six of them have a Russian president or vice-president.

Two wealthy businessmen, Vladimir Lisin (45th world fortune according to Forbes with 19.3 billion dollars) and Alisher Usmanov (106th, 12,1 billion USD), direct the international firing federations (ISSF) and fencing ( FIE).

Alisher Usmanov, head of the FIE since 2008, contributes his personal funds to the financing of the federation: a line in the revenues of the budgets of 2019 and 2020 includes the words "donation of the president" with the sum of 5 million Swiss francs , out of a total of CHF 9.5 million in revenue in 2019. He has also invested in the English club Arsenal.

On Sunday, in an open letter to WADA President Craig Reedie, Usmanov warned against a "lynching" of his country, ruling that a ban on the Russian flag at the Olympics would be "obvious discrimination".

The Russian presence goes back to the top of the state. Vladimir Putin, Red and White Judo Belt and 8th Dan, is Honorary President of the International Federation (IJF).

. Land of welcome

Since the conditional reinstatement of the Russian anti-doping agency (Rusada) in September 2018, Russia has won the final of the 2021 Champions League in St. Petersburg, the 2022 World-2022 Volleyball World Championships fight in Krasnoyarsk or Universiade-2023 in Yekaterinburg.

An area that Russia, host of the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, the 2018 World Cup or some Euro-2020 football matches, extends especially to less lucrative disciplines.

"Russia is influential because it hosts and wants to host many competitions, especially for international federations that do not have a lot of money.Many of these competitions are expensive to organize, they do not attract a large audience AFP says Canadian lawyer and IOC member Richard Pound.

Despite the doping scandal, the 2021 World Biathlon Championships were thus awarded to Tyumen in September 2016, before the International Biathlon Federation (IBU) finally gave up under pressure.

© 2019 AFP