“Politicizing participation”: the Netherlands decided to boycott the congress of the International Gymnastics Federation due to the admission of Russia

For the second week already, the International Gymnastics Federation has been subjected to incredible pressure from European states due to the admission of Russians and Belarusians to the congress of the organization, which will be held on November 11-12 in Istanbul.

FIG countries, one after another, announce a boycott of the event.

At the moment, seven delegations have already refused to travel to Turkey.

Representatives of Norway were the first to escalate the situation around the congress.

Initially, it was supposed to take place in October in Sandefjord, but in the summer the organizers said that they could not guarantee the admission of Russians and Belarusians due to sanctions imposed by the country's authorities.

However, according to the head of the Federal Social Development Fund Vasily Titov, the international federation has taken a principled position on this issue.

“It was about the fact that the elected representatives of Russia or Belarus should not participate in the congress.

This was the meaning of the Norwegian position, first of all, the Norwegian Olympic Committee, the sports committee and the ministry ... Since not a single elected representative of Russia or Belarus has been removed, they must participate in the congress.

It was a FIG position.

The Norwegians, however, reported that, based on the opinion of their "officers", they could not hold a congress, ”RIA Novosti quoted Titov as saying.

Then the Scandinavians planned to come to Turkey and express their protest to the international federation for being too loyal to domestic specialists, but in the end they decided to completely refuse to participate in the event.

Following the Norwegians, representatives of Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania and Estonia also entered, which was expected after the demarche of the Scandinavians.

Recall that it was under their pressure that FIS had to refuse Russian skiers to take part in the last stages of the World Cup, although the organization initially allowed athletes.

Further, the Italians joined the boycott.

Unlike others, they referred to the declaration on further sanctions against Russia and Belarus in the field of sports, signed by 25 EU states.

According to this document, these countries will seek to suspend the membership of domestic sports organizations in international federations, as well as to stop broadcasting competitions on the territory of the Russian Federation.

On Tuesday, October 18, delegates from the Netherlands Gymnastics Association also canceled their trip to Turkey.

“Our decision is due to the fact that Russian and Belarusian delegates can still register to participate in the congress,” says the letter from KNGU head Monique Kempff, which was sent to FIG.

In Russia, the situation is still treated calmly.

Although Titov expressed regret that a number of European organizations are trying to take advantage of the difficult political situation in the world.

“FIG includes 143 countries.

Even if there are no eight states, there is still a quorum for making a decision, this is the first one.

Secondly, each federation has the right to choose whether to come or not.

I am sad that my colleagues are politicizing their participation in the congress.

We continue to be members of the international federation, so we must be present at all events organized by the FIG.

There is no mass boycott, ”RIA Novosti quoted Titov as saying.

As the specialist emphasized, about 130 states have already registered for the congress, which means that it is eligible in any case.

At the same time, the head coach of the Russian national team, Valentina Rodionenko, drew attention to the fact that most of the countries that refused to travel to Turkey do not affect the development of the sport.

“We did not expect anything else from these countries.

These are their problems.

I don't think Congress will go along with them.

Gymnastics in Estonia is very weak, in Poland too.

These countries do not dictate fashion.

Perhaps there will be some kind of collusion, but it is unlikely that there will be a boycott on the part of China and Turkey.

These are the countries with which we have normal relations.

We communicate with many federations.

They say one thing, do another, and then they say that they were forced, ”said the coach.

Let's hope nothing changes in a month.

Recall that in the summer the international federation was one of the last to remove Russians and Belarusians from competitions under its auspices, allowing them to compete at the World Cup in Doha.

However, the Ukrainian gymnasts did not behave in the best way at the tournament and tried to provoke a conflict.

As a result, there was an incident: Ivan Kulyak entered the award ceremony with the letter Z on his chest.

As the athlete later explained, he did it solely because of provocations from other athletes.

“They communicated with us ugly, their behavior at some points was completely unacceptable.

So, during performances, they could afford to shout: “Glory to Ukraine!”.

Or go out on the platform, wrapped in the national flag, while we were considered neutral athletes and because of this we felt uncomfortable.

Many different things happened.

But most of all, it was frustrating that they asked to remove us from the World Cup stage, although we did nothing wrong to anyone.

We came to perform, but in the end they didn’t know until the very end whether they would let us reach the finals or not, ”Kulak said then in an interview with RT.

FIG suspended Ivan for six months from participation in all competitions, including in Russia.

However, then she mitigated the punishment and nevertheless allowed the strongest to the Spartakiad, which took place in early October.