Sat down in Cluj: why are Romanians testing the strength of the IOC

The mayor of a Romanian city announced the ban on the Russian flag at the Rhythmic Gymnastics Challenge Cup. The tournament will be held from 26 to 28 June. The competition is included in the official calendar of the International Gymnastics Federation (World Gymnastics), which lifted all restrictions on the symbols of our country on May 18. That is, in this case, there is state pressure and an attempt to use sports for political purposes, which is prohibited by the new amendments to the Olympic Charter. The day before, they were received with fanfare at the IOC session, and now the main question is: is Lausanne going to stick to its own rules or will it come up with a plausible explanation for its cowardice again?

A political whim

The use of Russian state symbols will not be allowed at the Challenge Cup stage, said the Mayor of Cluj-Napoca, Emil Bock. According to him, when agreeing on the tournament, he proceeded from the fact that Russian gymnasts could not perform under their own flag and anthem, but later the situation changed. In this regard, Bock noted, the Romanian Gymnastics Federation needs to clarify this issue in advance in order to avoid possible disputes.

At the same time, he stressed: "I want to make it completely clear and unambiguous: the Russian national anthem will not be performed in Cluj-Napoca and the Russian flag will not be used to represent athletes from this country."

Mikhail Degtyarev, the Minister of Sports and head of the ROC, replied that the Russian side had already sent appeals to World Gymnastics and the Romanian National Olympic Committee, demanding compliance with the decision to lift restrictions on our athletes. At the same time, the head of the ROC noted: "Statements by representatives of the authorities of the Romanian city of Cluj-Napoca about their readiness to prevent Russian athletes from competing at the World Cup under the national flag are a blatant violation of the Olympic Charter and the principle of political neutrality of sports."

Since World Gymnastics and European Gymnastics lifted restrictions on the Russian flag, quite a few starts have taken place — in Bulgaria (the European Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships and the Acrobatics World Cup stage), in Azerbaijan (the acrobatics and aerobics KM stages) and in China (the Challenge Cup stage). On June 26-27, our trampolinists are preparing to perform with their symbols in Arosa (Switzerland).

And so far, there have been no serious problems with local authorities anywhere. During the European Championship, Ukrainian junior Sofia Krajinskaya put on headphones and covered her face with her hands during the performance of the Russian national anthem in honor of the victory of Yana Zaikina. But after that, the international federation imposed a total ban on "political, racial or religious gestures, messages and symbols at award ceremonies."

Three possible scenarios

The situation in Cluj-Napoca will be a serious test of the willingness of World Gymnastics and the IOC to enforce their own regulations. If the international federation makes an exception for the next stage of the Challenge Cup, it will create a dangerous precedent: tournament organizers in other countries will be able to ignore the decisions of sports structures at their discretion.

World sport is already facing systematic visa refusals to representatives of Russia, Belarus, Iran, Israel and other countries, and such a practice will only increase legal uncertainty. Moreover, in the case of the mayor of Cluj-Napoca, we are talking exclusively about a political position: there are no legislative prohibitions on the use of the Russian flag either in Romania or in the European Union.

Moreover, the position of the city authorities is in direct conflict with the updated Olympic Charter, which at the recent session of the IOC introduced provisions on the political neutrality and autonomy of sports organizations. According to the new version of the document, international sports federations must independently establish and enforce the rules of their sports, and the IOC must adhere to the principle of neutrality and avoid any political pressure.

Based on these rules, sports officials have three options left. The first is to cancel the competitions due to the lack of conditions for their holding, or to get the city authorities to abandon political demands under threat of sanctions and deprive them of the right to host international competitions. The second option is to hold a tournament, offering the Russians, as an exception, to perform in a neutral status (it's not a fact that our girls will agree to this), and then apply fines and other measures to the organizers. The third option is to refer to force majeure circumstances and actually leave the situation without consequences, as sports organizations have done more than once during political conflicts.

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Precedents without consequences

We will probably find out which way World Gymnastics will choose in the very near future. There is no particular practical point in demarches with the abolition of the Russian flag, but the motive of the Romanian mayor is obvious: to show that the return of the symbols of our country "destroys the integrity of world sports." Although in fact, this threat primarily comes from die-hard politicians. Unfortunately, the IOC is not setting the best example here.

Yesterday, during a press conference in Lausanne, Olympic leader Kirsty Coventry said that she needed more time to resolve the issue of sanctions against Russia in order to "see how strengthening the Olympic Charter would work." Although the new version of the document seems to speak directly about the inadmissibility of political restrictions.

Alas, we have seen for the umpteenth time that seemingly correct messages are interpreted by sports organizations solely in the way that is beneficial to officials. There was already a precedent for banning national symbols at major competitions in 2017, when at the Grand Slam judo tournament, the organizers from the UAE banned the Israeli team not only from the anthem and flag, but even the abbreviation ISR on the uniform. For discriminatory actions, the UAE National Federation was fined and temporarily deprived of the right to host international competitions. And after the punishment was lifted, the Israeli flag was already present without restrictions at the next tournaments in this country.

But there were also less successful examples. For example, in 2023, at the European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan, hooligans tore out and set fire to the Azerbaijani flag during the opening ceremony. After that, the Azerbaijani delegation left the tournament, but there were no serious sanctions against the organizers for the lack of security. Most recently, in May of this year, the Japanese banned our Paralympic team from starting with national symbols at the World Paratriathlon Series in Yokohama, despite the World Triathlon's decision to return the flag to athletes with disabilities. In this case, supposedly weighty arguments were presented, and the officials simply threw up their hands.

So we have to state that the Olympic Charter is largely declarative in nature, and the IOC is in no hurry to make it a tool to ensure the values that the organization declares.