Not a day goes by without some brilliant new initiatives from the Committee on issues of youth and sports of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. First, they demanded a lifetime disqualification of the Russian saber fencer Anna Smirnova amid the scandal at the World Championships with Olga Kharlan. Then they turned to the leaders and parliaments of foreign states with a proposal to ban Russian athletes from entering the territory of their countries. Today it became known that the same committee calls at the official level to cancel handshakes and bows at competitions where Russian, Belarusian and Ukrainian athletes compete.
One idea is worse than anotherThe ideas expressed by Ukrainian sports officials were ripening long before the controversial World Fencing Championships in Milan. But it was the tournament in Italy that became the reason for all the dirt against the Russians to be poured from the Committee of Youth and Sports of Ukraine. Ukrainian Harlan was disqualified for refusing to shake hands with our Anna Smirnova. The Russian woman waited 50 minutes for her opponent after the fight, but she ignored her, for which she was justly punished.
Then, however, there was such a fuss that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and personally Thomas Bach had to intervene, who provided Harlan with an additional opportunity to qualify for the Games in Paris next year. The Ukrainian woman whined a lot on social networks, exposing herself as a victim. As a result, the Committee on Youth and Sports of the country demanded that Smirnova be disqualified for life, and then the Fencing Federation of Ukraine called for the resignation of the judge who punished Harlan after the duel with the Russian woman.
Having not received the desired reaction from the IOC, in Ukraine they decided to go further in their madness and made a request to the leaders of the countries to prevent Russian and Belarusian athletes from entering their territory. The idea is so-so, because for such actions the UK and Poland have already lost the opportunity to host major tournaments.
But that's not all. Today, the very same Committee on Youth and Sports of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine took a very desperate step and called for the abolition of all handshakes and bows between Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians.
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“It is extremely important to call on international sports federations to amend the rules of sports competitions, abolishing the mandatory handshake or bow in competitions in which both Ukrainian and Russian or Belarusian athletes take part,” the committee said in a statement published on the official Telegram channel .
Will they follow Ukraine's lead? Against the background of such idiocy, a logical question arises, is it not easier to «cancel» the Ukrainians themselves. After all, they are provocateurs in the vast majority of situations. They refuse to shake hands with rivals, they boycott tournaments, they complain wherever they can. If the IOC and a number of international federations decided to allow Russians and Belarusians in a neutral status, then they were ready for this and aimed at the return of our athletes.
Bach has already allowed himself criticism, in particular, of the Polish authorities, who denied entry to the Russians on the eve of the European Games in Krakow, as a result of which the fencing tournament there was deprived of the status of the European Championship. Logically, the actions of Ukrainian officials certainly should not go unnoticed. There is, of course, a version that the IOC simply does not pay attention to the statements of Ukrainian sports figures, because the level of delirium there is off scale.
But something tells me that they do not yet know how to react and are waiting for some instructions. On the one hand, it is dangerous for Bach and international federations to offend Ukraine. On the other hand, if you give in to such demands, then you can get into such a powerful scandal, from which there will be no way out. But somehow you have to respond. And soon.