The lawyer linked the ban on music for Humennik to the EU's harsh attitude against Russia.

The ban on the performance of Russian figure skater Pyotr Gumennik to the soundtrack from the movie "Perfumer" at the 2026 Olympics is associated with anti–Russian sentiments in the European Union (EU). Lawyer Arkady Bukh wrote about this in a comment to Izvestia on February 7.

The defender noted that the decision of the organizers is a "harsh reality" that the Russian team is facing. At the same time, the reason for the ban is not clear, it has several reasons.

"The first concept is strong European anti—Russian sentiments, where Russians are being undercut, removed, and eliminated, especially given the fact that the probability of winning medals — gold, silver, and bronze — is quite high," Buch said.

The expert also did not rule out the commercial interest of the copyright holder of the musical composition, who may request a large sum from the athlete's team to issue the rights.

According to Buch, figure skating is associated with the commercial public use of music, as competitions are broadcast to an audience of millions. In such circumstances, it is necessary to obtain the consent of all copyright holders in order to speak.

"Now Olympic competitions are not a gray field, but the strictest zone of legal control in the world of sports. And there, every second of the broadcast is calculated by lawyers. Because it's just about millions, sometimes tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars," the lawyer said.

The expert added that the organizers of competitions are usually responsible for violations. However, in practice, the claims are most often reflected in athletes.

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Earlier that day, it was reported that Humennik was banned from performing at the Olympics to the soundtrack from "The Perfumer" due to copyright issues. In response to the injustice towards the athlete, social media users launched a hashtag, which translated into Russian sounds like "Let Peter Humennik ride under the "Perfumer".

Figure skating coach Tatiana Tarasova told Izvestia that Humennik successfully performed at the Olympic selection to the soundtrack of "Perfumer", and then no one warned about possible copyright problems. She called the situation around the performance of the Russian figure skater disgusting.

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