PUTIN SCRAPS ‘FRIENDSHIP GAMES’ AMID GLOBAL BACKLASH

Russian President Vladimir Putin has officially shelved the planned “Friendship Games,” a revival of the Soviet-era multi-sport event designed to rival the Olympics. 

The Inter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee (IOC) had con­demned the ini­tia­tive as a bla­tant polit­i­cal pro­pa­gan­da tool.  

Orig­i­nal­ly con­ceived as a response to the U.S.-led boy­cott of the 1980 Moscow Games, the Friend­ship Games were first staged in 1984 to counter the Los Ange­les Olympics, which the Sovi­et Union boy­cotted. Announced last year, the revival of this com­pe­ti­tion was framed as a cel­e­bra­tion of inter­na­tion­al uni­ty but was wide­ly viewed as an attempt to assert Rus­si­a’s glob­al influ­ence amid its grow­ing iso­la­tion.  

In March, the IOC crit­i­cized the plan for vio­lat­ing the Olympic Char­ter and dis­cour­aged par­tic­i­pa­tion. Putin’s decree, pub­lished Mon­day, for­mal­ly can­celed the event but left the door open for its poten­tial revival pend­ing a “spe­cial deci­sion of the pres­i­dent.”  

Rus­si­a’s use of sports as a pro­pa­gan­da tool has become increas­ing­ly trans­par­ent. Once a dom­i­nant force in the Olympics, Rus­sia has been barred from com­pet­ing as a team due to its full-scale inva­sion of Ukraine. At this year’s Paris Olympics, only a few Russ­ian ath­letes were allowed to par­tic­i­pate as “indi­vid­ual neu­tral ath­letes,” a des­ig­na­tion wide­ly crit­i­cized as far­ci­cal giv­en the impos­si­bil­i­ty of sep­a­rat­ing sports from state pol­i­tics in Rus­sia.  

This can­cel­la­tion under­scores Rus­si­a’s wan­ing influ­ence in inter­na­tion­al sports, where its actions are met with con­dem­na­tion rather than com­pe­ti­tion.