I woke up to the sight of a river of people, from the elderly down to the babies carried in their parents' arms. I watched my TV as they slipped and slid up and down, some of them falling, wondering if they were going to get back up again. A building was on fire behind them. We didn't mean the entire 20th century in two years when we said we wanted to live in more interesting times.
It's hard to ignore the parallels between what's happening in Ukraine and the events that led to World War II if you're a history buff. Just as sports were a big part of presenting Hitler's Aryan myth to the world, they are also a part of Putin's delusion of Russian superiority.
Which leads me to Russia's gymnasts. At least a few of them.
Ivan Kuliak wore a shirt with a prominent Z on it at the Apparatus World Cup. The one on the side of Russian tanks and trucks is a symbol of the invasion of Ukraine. It turns out that Kuliak taped his uniform to the podium just in time for him to take the gold medal. It was obvious that the winner was the guy who came in third.
What is the meaning of the ZD; stand for? The Daily Beast got into it.
Kamil Galeev, a Galina Starovoitova Fellow at Woodrow Wilson Center, has been curating examples of the creepy character’s use on Twitter. “‘Z’ is a letter that Russian Military are putting on their vehicles departing to Ukraine. Some interpret ‘Z’ as ‘Za pobedy’ (for victory). Others - as ‘Zapad’ (West). Anyway, this symbol invented just a few days ago became a symbol of new Russian ideology and national identity,” he tweeted before the invasion. Now Galeev believes the symbol means Putin has taken a page out of the world’s worst tyrants, including Benito Mussolini. “To put it simply, it’s going full fascist,” he tweeted. “Authorities launched a propaganda campaign to gain popular support for their invasion of Ukraine and they’re getting lots of it.”
The Gymnastics Ethics Foundation was asked to take action against Kuliak after the International Gymnastics Federation condemned his behavior. You can be here, but you can't wear the Russian flag, because Russia was allowed to compete in this tournament at all. Kuliak could lose his bronze medal and face a ban from competition. The sports world is ill-equipped to deal with acts of international genocide and treachery like what is happening in places like Mariupol and Kharkiv. Russian and Belarusian athletes and judges will not be allowed to participate in the competition.
Kuliak was not the only Russian gymnast who supported Putin. According to a report, a former gymnast posted on her social media account that it was a campaign for those who are not ashamed to be Russian.
I have already seen this take over and over on social media, and it's easy to defend Russian athletes by saying they have to play the game because they have family back home. There is a difference between being Russian and trying to curry favor with Putin. Kuliak didn't have to tape his leotard. He was about to stand side-by-side with the gold medalist whose homeland is in the process of being destroyed by a madman with nukes.
An elderly woman who said she had survived the siege of Leningrad was among the war protestors arrested in Russia yesterday. The law that Putin recently enacted criminalizes the dissemination of false information about Russia's armed forces has a penalty of 15 years in prison.
If Russian citizens can take to the streets to stand up to Putin, it will be the last time that the sporting world will crack down on athletes who do his bidding.
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