Russian athletes are being suspended from competitions for doping, while sports officials and MPs blame it on “Russophobia”.

Russian weightlifter and “strongman” Mikhail Koklyaev said in an interview that “the task of the West is to kill the faith, the tsar and the fatherland. They have killed the faith, the tsar, and now they are trying to resolve the issue of the fatherland. Because the West knows how to play the long game. They think ten moves ahead.” Similar sentiments are heard from Russian athletes, coaches, officials and officials on a regular basis, in unison with Russian propaganda. Since Russian propaganda uses absolutely all areas of life for its own purposes, sport is no exception. On the other hand, when propaganda benefits, Russian athletes broadcast the message that “sport is out of politics”.

Detector Media explains how propaganda exploits the topic of sports and what tactics and tools it uses to achieve its goals.

Sport has always been an important part of the international image of any state, a means of soft power. And for totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, it has become a weapon of propaganda for their own ideology. For example, the 1934 FIFA World Cup and the 1936 Olympic Games played an important role in the propaganda of the Italian Fascists and the German Nazis. Hitler and Mussolini wanted not only to organise and conduct these sporting events in an exemplary manner, but also to show the world the victorious results and the “superiority” of their nations and political regimes over their competitors. The Soviet Union was not far behind, using sport to propagate communist ideology and fight the “capitalist bloc” in the Cold War. This confrontation culminated in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, which were boycotted by 65 nations in protest against Soviet aggression in Afghanistan. In response, 14 countries of the “Soviet bloc” boycotted the next Summer Olympics, held in Los Angeles in 1984.

In the USSR, the entire system of sports was controlled by the state and served its interests. There was a system of so-called sports societies, each of which was attached to a specific branch of the ‘national economy’, and the largest and most powerful ones were attached to the security forces: “CSKA/SCKA (army) and Dynamo (internal affairs). Most of the leading athletes were also officers of the Soviet army, police and special services. This system has largely been preserved in modern Russia, where sport also relies heavily on state funding. This funding is not only direct but also indirect: for example, the Gazprom corporation, which has sponsored many sports competitions, including international ones, is only 50.23% owned by the Russian state. Russian oligarchs controlled by Putin also often finance sports. Cases of financing of Russian sports by private entities not connected with the government are rare and have little impact on the overall picture. The Krasnodar football club owned by oligarch Sergei Galitsky is an examplary case here.

Apart from NHL hockey players and footballers who play in Europe (the latter are few among Russians), all other athletes and coaches are directly or indirectly financially dependent on the state, i.e. the ruling regime. And they are the mouthpieces of its propaganda. We have written about some of them before. Now, let’s take a closer look at the tactics and tools that Russia uses to exploit sports.

Glorification

Russian propaganda does not even hide the use of this tactic. Back in 2014, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that one of the ways to promote sports is to glorify Russian athletes. This was confirmed by the awarding of the titles of Heroes of Russia to such Olympic champions as skiers Lyubov Yegorova and Larisa Lazutina, as well as Greco-Roman wrestler Alexander Karelin, who is now a member of the Federation Council and one of the leading “mouthpieces” of Putin’s propaganda in sports. Ukraine imposed sanctions against him.

One of the main Russian sports “heroes” is hockey player Alexander Ovechkin. Despite playing in the “capitalist” American-Canadian NHL, Ovechkin has been actively supporting Putin and his regime since 2017, and has been a “VIP propagandist”. For example, he initiated the creation of the so-called Putin Team, a pre-election project in support of Putin in the 2018 presidential election that brought together many famous Russian athletes and showbiz stars. However, in 2022, Ovechkin had to change his stance a bit in order not to lose his multimillion-dollar contracts in the NHL: he had already resorted to the rhetoric that many Russians find convenient: “I am out of politics and for world peace.”

Waving flags

After the imposition of sanctions against Russian sports due to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, which resulted in the suspension of most of the aggressor country’s athletes from international competitions, they were faced with the dilemma  of what to do next. After all, without international competitions and institutions, there can be no sporting progress. It also negatively affects the financial situation of athletes. So some athletes began consultations about changing their citizenship and playing for other countries, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said that Russians would only be able to take part in competitions under their auspices if they publicly condemned the war against Ukraine. The propaganda machine naturally reacted to this.

For example, Soviet ex-hockey player and Olympic champion Stanislav Petukhov said: “I don’t know what [Thomas] Bach [the IOC chief] was counting on. I only know that true athletes are patriots of our country and will never commit treason to repent of anything. They adhere to the policy pursued by the country and its president. Definitely, no one will commit treason.” Similar rhetoric was used in statements by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Chernyshenko, the head of the Russian Olympic Committee Stanislav Pozdnyakov, heads of some Russian sports federations and current athletes who support Putin.

And State Duma MP Roman Teryushkov suggested that changing sports citizenship should be equated with high treason: “The President has signed a law according to which siding with the enemy in times of war will be considered treason. I believe that changing sports citizenship for national team athletes should also be equated with an act of treason.” This statement also contains elements of another propaganda tactic – intimidation.

Devaluation

Russian propaganda started using this tactic after their athletes were suspended from international competitions due to the full-scale aggression against Ukraine. Agitprop uses devaluation only in those sports where Russia was really strong and had a lot of weight.

The most recent example is the World Ice Hockey Championship, which took place in May 2023. Not only Russia, but also Belarus was suspended from the competition. Now they can only play friendly matches with each other, which is what they are doing. The World Championship caused a flurry of criticism among the Russian hockey world loyal to Putin. “They held some kind of cartoon world championship in Finland and Latvia. I didn’t watch a single minute, a single match of this tournament!” said Vyacheslav Fetisov, a two-time Olympic champion and current State Duma MP. Former hockey player Konstantin Menshikov commented on Latvia’s third place in the tournament: “I’m certainly happy for the Latvians. Their success is the result of the fact that they have had cooperation with Russia for many years. Dynamo Riga played in the KHL [Russian Ice Hockey League], and children’s, youth and junior teams from Latvia came here for tournaments.”

State Duma MP Dmitry Svishchev gave a negative assessment of the World Championship: “The grey, provincial World Cup is over. There was no spectacular game. Without Russians and Belarusians, the World Championship cannot be called a world championship. The strongest hockey players didn’t come at all, only young people and representatives of student sports played. It’s a shame for one of the most popular and favourite sports in the world. It is impossible to imagine it without Russia.”

In this way, Russian propaganda devalues the level of the competition from which their team was suspended and undermines the success of other countries, especially those that are not too friendly to Russia (Canada won the championship, and Latvia took the third place). In other sports where Russians had strong positions, similar trends are observed.

The image of the victim

The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics was one of two key events for Putin’s propaganda in the field of sports. Billions of dollars were spent on preparations for it, much of which ended up in the pockets of officials. Putin partially achieved his goal, and the Russian team won the medal standings of the Olympics by a long shot. But then serious problems began. It turned out that Russia had a state-level doping programme. The former head of the Moscow Anti-Doping Laboratory, Grigory Rodchenkov, emigrated to the United States and began a series of sensational exposés of the programme’s participants. Many Russian athletes were disqualified from international competitions and stripped of their medals, including at the 2014 Olympics. After that, until 2022, Russian national teams in many sports were constantly accompanied by “doping scandals”.

This is when Russian propaganda started using this tactic. It was mainly about injustice and alleged “double standards” towards Russia. For example, after Russian athletes were banned from participating in the 2018 Olympics under their own flag and with the Russian anthem, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented: “There is no way we can be defeated. Not by a world war, not by the collapse of the Soviet Union, not by sanctions. We take it and survive. There shouldn’t have been a Russian sport anymore. The world’s forecasts did not foresee the revival of Russia as a sports power: young people should have already been drunk, clothing markets should have been registered at stadiums forever, and coaches should have worked for other teams.”

Russian agitprop began to use the term “Russophobia” in all areas, including sports. For example, former figure skater, Olympic champion and State Duma MP Irina Rodnina commented on the IOC’s conditions for allowing Russian athletes to compete: “When we were punished before, we knew why and for what reason. Now it’s just Russophobia. They want to humiliate us.”

The head of the Russian Rhythmic Gymnastics Federation, Irina Viner-Usmanova, reacted to the suspension of Russian athletes: “It is very difficult to talk about this, to be in this situation. The feeling of injustice prevails over justice, it’s a very bad story for the athletes, for the coaches. [Alexander] Bolshunov [Russian skier] won five medals at the Olympics, three of them gold. And he is suspended. This impoverishes our country. But our country will still compete, we will still go forward and set world records. Russophobia is becoming widespread.” There are many similar statements from Russian sports officials.

Personal attacks and shameful epithets

In the case of agitprop, these two tactics are often interconnected. Russian athletes, coaches, sports officials and experts do not hesitate to get personal and to use Russian swears to describe their rivals and opponents.

For example, Olympic ice hockey champion and current State Duma MP Vyacheslav Fetisov called International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) President Luc Tardif a “moron” for banning Russia and Belarus from the World Championship: “Forget about this organisation. By the way, right here in St Petersburg, we elected this moron as the new IIHF president. Who cares if he’s a Tardif or not? He’s a man who doesn’t understand the meaning of everything that’s going on.”

Olympic biathlon champion, ex-athlete and former sports official Alexander Tikhonov went even further and reacted to the detention of a Russian hockey player in Poland on suspicion of espionage: “The question of why the Poles and everyone else can mock us should be asked to the Russian president. Ask him why we are humiliated by the Poles and other scum. I would have levelled Warsaw with Berlin long ago so that Russia would be respected.”

State Duma MP Roman Teryushkov, who is in charge of sports, commented on the actions of former footballer and blogger Yevgeny Savin, who openly condemns Putin’s regime and the war, supports Ukraine and was forced to leave Russia due to political persecution: “And this bastard, I have no other words, starts throwing mud at our country, our soldiers, our president. Now this guy, apparently, it was not enough for him, gives an interview to a blogger, Ksenia Sobchak, and does not hesitate to bark at our president, our country, to throw mud.” There are many similar examples.

Mirroring 

This is a typical tactic for Russian propaganda in general, which is used, in particular, to divert attention from its own criminal actions. Propagandists bring the same accusations against Russia’s opponents as they bring against the aggressor country itself.

An example of the use of this tactic in sports is biathlon, in which Russians had serious problems with doping even before the full-scale aggression in Ukraine. For example, Olympic biathlon champion Dmitry Vasilyev commented on Putin’s plans to hold the Friendship Games in 2024, which are supposed to replace the Olympics: “Athletes will not refuse this. I think even those who are now loudly criticising us and calling for us to be excluded will come. For example, the Norwegians, who are mired in doping, will be the first to come as soon as they see that we have good prize money. They will do anything for money.”

The aforementioned Alexander Tikhonov reacted to the criteria for the admission of Russian athletes to the 2024 Olympics: “This is a bunch of freaks who think only about America, and they don’t care where someone is dying of hunger, where there is a war. I experienced this myself when I was sitting in a bomb shelter in Belgrade while they were bombing the city.” Of course, Tikhonov never mentions the bombing of Ukrainian civilians by Russian troops.

And State Duma MP Roman Teryushkov described the actions of football blogger Yevgeny Savin as follows: “He saw nothing for eight years, when the people of Donbas were being destroyed, peaceful children, old people, women were dying at the hands of Ukrainian fascists, he saw nothing. He was doing well, he was developing football, because football is beyond politics.” As we can see, Russian “sports” propagandists use general political narratives, not just sports ones.

Russian media propaganda also sometimes uses sports topics, but it cannot be said that this is done methodically and systematically. Agitprop responds only to certain high-profile topics. For example, Margarita Simonyan reacted to Russian Dina Averina’s loss in the rhythmic gymnastics competition at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics and blamed the judges: “What space animals. I don’t watch the Olympics anymore. Not one. Ugh. An Israeli gymnast who drops an object will not receive a gold medal, but a reinforced concrete disgrace.” During the same 2021 Olympics, Russian propagandist Olga Skabeyeva’s 60 Minutes programme featured insults against foreign LGBT athletes competing at the games. This led to public condemnation by the International Olympic Committee.

One of the areas of propaganda in the field of sports in Russia is to increase the loyalty of its own population. However, if you look at the comments on Russian sports websites, you get the impression that pro-government athletes and officials are negatively perceived among ordinary fans and sports enthusiasts.

Unfortunately, Russian propaganda in the field of sports is somewhat more successful in the international arena. While at the beginning of the full-scale aggression against Ukraine, Russian athletes were banned from participating in international competitions in almost all sports (except tennis, chess and amateur boxing, in the latter two sports, where Russians directly control the international federations), the situation began to change over time. The turning point was the adoption of the “IOC recommendations”, which effectively allowed athletes from the occupying country to participate in international competitions and compete for Olympic licences in at least 16 sports.

Russian sports officials are playing up their dissatisfaction and categorical rejection of the IOC’s conditions (participation without a flag and anthem, non-involvement in military structures, and the obligation to sign a declaration condemning the war unleashed by Putin) in order to achieve more – to lift these restrictions as well.

The messages of agitprop do indeed partially influence some sports officials and functionaries from other countries. The theses of “sport is out of politics” and “why should athletes be responsible for the crimes of politicians?” do find support. But money has a much greater influence on Russians’ admissions. It’s no secret that world sport is sometimes as corrupt as the state apparatus of Russia itself. The country that openly bought the right to host the 2018 FIFA World Cup is still spending a lot of money lobbying the IOC and international sports federations. Some of them are fully or partially controlled by the Russians, which allows them to push through the decisions they need.