Legendary athlete and member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Sergey Bubka spoke out against Russia's participation in international competitions many times and regularly pushed through the idea of expelling our athletes. At the same time, as it turned out, he has a business in Donetsk, and the TIN of the famous pole vaulter is registered in the Crimea. How is this even possible?
From great victories to hatred of RussiaFrom a sporting point of view, Bubka is an absolutely great athlete. He is the first person in the world to pole vault over six meters. On his account, the gold of the Seoul 1988 Olympics, six victories at the world championships, as well as a number of records and outstanding achievements. For a long time, Sergiy headed the National Olympic Committee (NOC) of Ukraine. Until now, he remains a member of the board of the World Athletics Association (World Athletics) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
In 2001, Bubka was given the high title of Hero of Ukraine. He also had political ambitions. He was a member of the «For a United Ukraine» and «Party of Regions» factions, and was also listed as a freelance adviser to then President Viktor Yanukovych. Judging by early statements and actions, Bubka had a very good attitude towards Russia and often came to visit us at sports and other official events.
However, recently his rhetoric has changed dramatically. In particular, last summer Bubka called for removing Russia from all possible and impossible competitions.
«» The Executive Committee of the IOC, in order to protect the unity of international sports competitions, recommended their organizers and international sports federations not to invite athletes and officials from Russia and Belarus to participate. This position was fully supported this week by the Summer Olympic Sports Association. The NOC of Ukraine requires all international federations to comply with the above recommendations,» said Bubka, whose message was published on the official website of the NOC of Ukraine.
In March 2023, Serhiy happily supported the decision of the World Athletics Council to extend the suspension of Russian athletes.
«Sergei Bubka participated in the meeting of the World Athletics Council and was in the majority on the issue of suspension of Russian and Belarusian athletes,» said the head of the organization, Sebastian Coe, at a press conference.
Bubka and business in Russia are not a joke the hero of Ukraine and one of the country's most famous and popular athletes cannot have any ties with Russia. It would be simply unthinkable, given the madness in which his homeland plunged. However, fate sometimes makes extremely curious turns. It turned out that Bubka does business in the DPR and Crimea.
Monblan LLC is registered in the database of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities (USRLE) of Russia, the legal address of which is in Donetsk. According to this information, the Olympic champion is a co-founder of the company, and its second owner and director is the elder brother of the famous athlete Vasily Bubka. The documents say that Sergey Bubka's TIN begins with the numbers 91, which means registration in Russia, or to be more precise, in the Crimea.
The main activity of the Bubka brothers' company is «retailing motor fuel in specialized stores.» It is taken that brother Sergei Vasily has Russian citizenship. And that is not all. Two more companies in the DPR are registered for the Olympic champion — LLC «Sports Club of Sergei Bubka» and LLC «August». The Ukrainian media are already literally «exploding» from indignation and misunderstanding how this could have happened at all. It seems that the great Ukrainian athlete will have to work very hard to explain everything.