Vladimir Putin: The world of sport has shunned the Russian president. So what?
(CNN)As Russia continues its invasion of Ukraine, the grim reality of war has taken center stage, with more than two million Ukrainians fleeing the country and hundreds dead, according to the UN.
2022-03-10 21:11:27 - VI News Staff
Russia is already paying a price for its aggression -- countries around the world are imposing sanctions and the Russian ruble has plunged even further against the dollar, hitting record lows.
A plethora of international sports organizations and governing bodies have also responded to the invasion targeting Russia and its athletes with sanctions of varying severity, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has been stripped of multiple honorary sporting titles.
Notably Russian and Belarusian athletes were not allowed to compete at the 2022 Winter Paralympics in Beijing after multiple other countries' athletes and teams threatened not to compete at the Games, according to the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has recommended a ban for Russian and Belarusian athletes competing in international competition.
"The situation is monstrous, of course. This is a disgrace for the International Paralympic Committee," said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters following the decision.
The IOC also announced that it had withdrawn the Olympic Order -- the highest award of the Olympic movement -- from Putin.
"The IOC was viewed as having a close relationship with Russia," Michael Payne, former head of marketing at the IOC, told CNN.
"The fact that the IOC has now issued a set of sanctions to Russia, which, in my view, are probably the strongest sanctions the IOC has ever issued ... since probably the early 60s when the IOC banned South Africa for its apartheid regime," he said.
Meanwhile, world football's governing body, FIFA, and European soccer body, UEFA, have suspended all Russian international and club teams from their competitions "until further notice."