The Guardian newspaper reports that Ukrainian athletes received special instructions on how to react to athletes from Russia at the Paris Olympics.
Ukraine's acting sports minister, Matviy Bidny, has expressed concern about Russia's possible use of its athletes as part of a propaganda operation at the Olympics, in an interview with The Guardian, underscoring how deep political dilemmas can affect sporting events that are usually unifying.
He said that for this purpose, recommendations have been developed that will help Ukrainians avoid being drawn into controversial situations, such as the one when fencer Olga Kharlan was expelled from the World Championships for refusing to shake hands with her Russian opponent.
The poor man called on his country's athletes to keep a "cool head" and ignore any provocations from Russian athletes, who will compete at the Olympics under a neutral flag.
The recommendations of the Ministry of Sports state that Ukrainian athletes should maintain interaction with Russians at the minimum permissible level. The priority for Ukraine is the safety of its participants and the reluctance to attract negative attention: “This is how Russia wages war: it influences and manipulates opinions. Sport is a very important part of their propaganda, and we have done a lot for the world to prevent them from entering the international sports movement. Even journalists cannot appear at the Olympics under their flag.”
