Tula’s ice show showed how dirty the game has been around Russian sports, writes Yleena Sport’s journalist Jelena Leppänen.
Less than 200 kilometers from Moscow, a raging play was witnessed over the weekend.
A figure skating legend was held in the city of about 500,000 on Saturday Yevgeny Pljushtshenkon a skating show called “Champions League” organized by.
The event was attended by many well-known Russian stars such as the winners of the competition Aljona Kostornaja, Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva, Dmitry Aliyev and Adelina Sotnikova. Also present were juniors from the Plushchenko Academy of Figure Skating and his 9-year-old son Alexander.
However, it was not skating that played the main role, but propaganda.
The sports magazine Sport Ekspess reported that the skating section was preceded by a “patriotic concert”. Everything was crowned by the ruling regional leader in Russia Nikolai Vorobyovin speech.
– Russia especially feels the strength of our country and the pursuit of justice. I am sure our country is always strong and united, we are not afraid of any difficulties. — Today, it is more important than ever to stay together, to support our country, our president, all those who risk their lives extending a helping hand to people in dire need, Vorobyov declared, according to several Russian media outlets.
Russian athletes have been implicated since childhood that it is not the job of athletes to take a stand or question, but the wave of propaganda experienced in Tula was too much for many.
According to Sport Ekspress, skaters hesitated to go to the ice and called the CEO of the country’s Figure Skating Association To Alexander Kogan. The skating show was delayed by more than half an hour, but eventually the stars arrived to perform.
The show pulled through did not remove the bitter aftertaste. European Championships in skating Aleksandra Bojkova assured on his Telegram channel that the athletes were unaware of the program numbers preceding the skating screen.
– We will only perform at the Yevgeny Plushchenko Champions Association show. Our art is figure skating and nothing else, Bojkova wrote.
World Cup and European Championship winner Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva said she was completely lost after everything that happened.
– I really wanted to believe that sport is not part of politics, but today it did not. I love figure skating, that’s my life. I like to take part in competitions, skate, do new shows, take part in shows. However, I don’t want athletes ’appearances to be a means of manipulation, 25-year-old Tuktamysheva wrote on her Instagram account.
The reactions of the skaters tell everything how dirty the game of politicians around the sport has gone.
Numerous Russian policymakers and sports bosses have been victims of commenting on the country’s closure of international competitions, but for some reason the president Vladimir Putinia no problem is seen in supportive sporting events.
When Tula area sports director Dmitry Yakovlev accused the international community of not keeping sport separate from politics after the ice show, the absurdity reached a new level.
Events like Tula force athletes to face grueling questions. Since Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, many Russian athletes have claimed to be just an athlete who only wants to play sports. Saturday’s ice show showed it wasn’t practically possible.
Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva, one of Russia’s most popular skaters, said she didn’t want to be manipulated, but that’s the role the country’s stars are being pushed into – whether they wanted to or not.
Sport is now more important to Russian power politics than it has been for decades.