Estonia and Poland announced they are joining Ukraine and Norway in their boycott of the FIG congress next month over the participation of Russia and Belarus. The Congress will take place in Istanbul on November 11th-12th, next week after the Artistic Gymnastics World Championships. Originally, the Congress was supposed to be hosted by Norway in Sandefjord but Norway authorities refused to grant visas to Russian and Belarusian delegates. The FIG opted to move the event in order to ensure Russians’ and Belarusians’ ability to participate in it.
More countries joining the boycott will put some pressure on the FIG but pressure might not be enough when there is strong support for Russia and Belarus at the highest levels. The FIG was among the last international bodies to ban athletes from Russia and Belarus from international competitions: even Russian show dogs were banned before Russian gymnasts. Unlike multiple federations, the FIG specifically refused to ban the officials from the administrative events. And recently, Watanabe expressed hope that Russian and Belarusian athletes will be able to return to international competitions soon.
When athletes and judges were banned initially, Watanabe claimed that the officials would not be banned because “your position [in the FIG] is not related to your country of origin”. However, it’s hard to claim that officials are completely neutral and are not linked to the war in any way. For example, Russia’s Vassily Titov, former vice-president of the FIG and current EC member, holds a senior position at the VTB Bank. The state-owned Russian bank which used to be a major sponsor of the FIG before the war, is under multiple Western sanctions because it is instrumental in financing the war. His boss, the president of VTB and former president of the Russian Gymnastics Federation Andrey Kostin is under personal sanctions for his involvement in the war. Another example is Belarusian Liubov Charkashyna, former head of the athlete commission at the FIG and currently a member of the RG technical committee and the Foundation for Solidarity. Charkashyna is connected to the president of Belarus Aleksandr Lukashenko and was one of his trusted representatives at the presidential 2020 elections (the results of which are widely considered to have been falsified by Lukashenko).
When the FIG moved the Congress Norway, Vassily Titov thanked the FIG for this “honest and consistent position”:
“Since no elected representatives of Russia or Belarus have been suspended, they have to participate in the Congress. This was the FIG’s position. Nevertheless, the Norwegians announced, based on the opinion of their officials, that they will not be able to host [the event]. Now the FIG is working on an alternative option to hold the Congress at the same time but in another place. The Congress will happen. And we will participate. I repeat, I am very grateful to the FIG for their very honest and consistent position [on the matter].”
After Poland and Estonia joined the boycott, Titov said it does not matter much because 130 countries registered for the Congress:
“It’s their right [to boycott]. 130 countries registered for the Congress and thus, it is empowered to make decisions. And those who do not want to participate have their own reasons. I don’t want to judge them or argue about it. We are participating. The FIG maintains a correct and consistent line [of actions]. The have fulfilled the recommendations of the IOC for our national team but everything related to the administrative events remains the same. The FIG Congress has been moved from Norway to Turkey which is ready to host it with participants from Russia and Belarus. We are happy with that.”
