Olympism, marginalized, Russians resort to questionable jokes

The Russians have found a new way to attract the attention of the leadership of the world Olympic forum, one that will not bring them much benefit in terms of sports. The method is plucked from the radio world of the 90s and shows helplessness more than anything else. The International Olympic Committee and the forum's president, Thomas Bach, were the targets of phone pranks by a group in Russia that has previously done the same with world political leaders and other high-ranking figures. The incident comes in the context in which the relations between the Olympic forum and Russia are rapidly deteriorating after the ban on parading at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics for Russian athletes due to the war in Ukraine. The IOC stated that fake calls were made to the Olympic forum and its president, the people who called presented themselves as representatives of the African Union Commission and wanted to discuss the situation related to Russia. According to the IOC: "It seems that there has been a new incident in the Russian campaign of disinformation and defamation against the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and its president. Hoax calls from people claiming to be from the African Union Commission appear to have been made by the same group that has already attacked a number of world political leaders and other high-profile figures in the same way. During the calls, a person claiming to be the president of the African Union Commission wanted to get arguments, especially from the IOC, against the politicization of sport by the Russian government, in order to prepare a statement against this politicization." The CIO did not provide details about the conversations or specify how many calls there were. In September, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke of international "fatigue" over the war in Ukraine and the lack of support for Italy in managing migration, in a phone prank said to have been staged by Russian comedians Vovan and Lexus that he had connections with the Kremlin and the FSB. Last week, the IOC announced that it had banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in the parade at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics, because of the war in Ukraine.

This prompted a harsh response from Moscow, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying the IOC's decision represented "the destruction of the idea of Olympism" and a violation of the athletes' interests.