Some observers have referred to Russia’s activities as sport washing, a practice associated either with cleansing a country’s image and reputation or with deceiving people into believing an aggressor is something other than who or what we might think they are.
But for the people of Ukraine, Poland and elsewhere, there have never been any doubts about Putin’s intentions. The strategy and the stains were always clear to see.
Other people take the view that Russia’s use of sport has been a form of soft power, whereby it has sought to attract overseas audiences by seducing them through the allure of sport.
While there are some grounds for concluding that this is what Kremlin strategists have been seeking to achieve, the predisposition of Putin’s regime toward deception, divisiveness and destruction indicates that use of the word “soft” is misplaced.
PUTINISATION OF SPORT
If neither sport washing nor soft power appropriately or sufficiently explain how the Russian government has deployed the likes of football and athletics, then surely a better explanation is that global sport has been “Putinised”.
At its heart, this “Putinisation” has seen state-led strategy focused on building power and exerting control across the world, executed through the divisive deployment of sport. But now, the tipping point has come and global sport must respond.
Short-term, many of the measures now being implemented by sport to sanction Russia are to be applauded. Yet “Putinisation”, demands that clubs, governing bodies, event owners and others more fundamentally change their ways.
The Kremlin clearly doesn’t engage with sport on the basis of sport or rational economics, its decisions are much more geopolitically charged than this. As such, those sport organisations that have taken money from Russian sponsors or investors need to start thinking less about their financial coffers and more about the risks when associating with Putin and his ilk.
As for Russia, events in recent days have proved one thing: that Putin can’t be trusted nor, for the time being at least, can Russian sport. For the country to be reintegrated back into the system of global sport will require measures to be put in place that not only reassure us but also provide tangible evidence that sport is not being manipulated or exploited for geopolitical purposes.
What this means and whether it can be achieved are complex matters, though sport simply cannot afford to be fooled any longer.
Simon Chadwick is Global Professor of Eurasian Sport and Director of Eurasian Sport, EM Lyon. This commentary first appeared in The Conversation.
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