Russian lawmakers are calling for the country to stop recognizing the jurisdiction of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).
Two members of Russian parliament, Roman Teryushkov and Eduard Isakov, argue that the CAS has neglected to protect the rights of Russian athletes amid the widespread bans implemented as a result of the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
The pair first proposed a bill for Russia to stop recognizing CAS decisions earlier this year, and earlier this week it was submitted to the Russian lower house of parliament.
Isakov says the CAS “makes unfair decisions against Russian athletes,” and that the bill will help “restore Russia’s sports sovereignty.”
“If CAS exercises its powers based on the belonging of a particular athlete to a certain nationality, thereby refusing to protect the rights of our athletes, then frankly I see no reason to further recognize the jurisdiction of CAS,” Isakov, explained to Russia’s state-sponsored media outlet, TASS.
Isakov added that the bill would “eliminate the primacy of international arbitration courts and their decisions over the decisions of the courts of the judicial system of the Russian Federation in the field of physical culture and sports.”
Isakov also noted that Russia has been a constant target for international sports organizations over the past eight years, having realized the country’s “advantage in the world sports arena” and thus “consistently implemented a policy to eliminate the Russian Federation as a sports power.”
A number of international sports federations have imposed bans on Russian and Belarusian athletes following the invasion of Ukraine in February, following recommendations by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Russia has challenged some of these decisions to the CAS, such as the ones with FIFA and UEFA, but they have been rejected.
Additionally, there has been an impending threat that Russia and Belarus will break from the IOC if they are banned from Paris 2024 and create a separatist organization akin to the USSR era of Spartakiad events.
“A Russian breakaway is certainly possible,” IOC senior member Dick Pound told The Sports Examiner‘s David Miller. “But if you exclude yourself from an idealistic arena, it’s inevitably self-defeating. You look bad. A rekindled Spartakiad would have no revenue, no momentum, no magic.
“In the sporting environment, if a nation or individual tumbles off stage, is alienated, then only if they reassemble are they welcomed back. Russia must face that reality. Yes, the Olympic Games welcomes everybody, but not an outlaw state.”
This serves absolutely no purpose other than to ********** Russia’s prospects of competing internationally anytime soon, and I don’t think anyone can with a straight face argue that stuff like this is helpful to anyone.
It’s incredible to watch a nation state behave like a spoilt child. However as pathetic as it looks from the outside the reality is that brutal regimes have a history of shutting themselves off from the rest of the world, and Putin’s regime seems absolutely determined to bring such a sorry state of affairs upon the Russians again. God bless them.
Later Russia.
They’ll just be banned as long as they don’t recognise CAS even if the war has ended.