Putin’s embarrassing propagandist
“Sexbomb” Plushenko mutates into a war tangled head
03/23/2022, 7:57 p.m
Yevgeny Plushenko was one of figure skating’s last superstars. At least outside of Russia, the behavior of the now 39-year-old in connection with the military attack on Ukraine only arouses incomprehension
Yevgeny Plushenko’s star role on the ice was “Sexbomb”. When the two-time Olympic champion in figure skating, accompanied by Tom Jones, swept from gang to gang at breakneck speed, the audience in the hall went wild and millions of fans worldwide were thrilled. But at least since Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine, the 39-year-old has shrunk to an embarrassing propagandist who pays obsequious homage to dictator Vladimir Putin and only reaped incomprehension outside his home country.
“I just find it sick what he’s saying, I can’t understand it. It’s so inhuman,” says pair skating Olympic champion Aljona Savchenko, who fears for her three brothers who are still living in Ukraine. How unconditionally the three-time world champion supports Putin was made abundantly clear last week at the big propaganda show in Moscow’s Luzhniki Sports Park. Simply taking part was not enough for Plushenko, he proudly posted a selfie from this more than questionable event. Already last year he let himself be harnessed by Putin. Before a constitutional amendment that would allow the president to serve additional terms until 2036, a corresponding advertising clip had been published for each referendum.
Good friends.
(Photo: dpa)
“Children and people are dying, countries are falling apart – it’s a catastrophe. And these athletes are celebrating and supporting this gala,” Savchenko said in an interview with Eurosport. However, Plushenko is not an isolated case. The “Z” provocation by gymnast Ivan Kuliak a few days ago at the World Cup in Doha caused international outrage. The statements made by chess star Sergej Karjakin were even more absurd.
The 32-year-old, who was born in Ukraine and has had Russian citizenship since 2009, wrote on Twitter, among other things: “Many people ask if I regret my public support for the special operation. After all, I already have invitations to tournaments in the West lost and could lose an invitation to the Candidates Tournament. My answer is simple. I stand by Russia and my President. No matter what happens, I will support my country in any situation, without thinking a second about it.” Previously, he had also made fun of the victims in the war zones.
Show tour through “People’s Republics” in the Donbass
Plushenko had positioned himself clearly at the very beginning of the Russian military invasion. “I believe in our president and trust him,” said the seven-time European champion and three-time world champion, saying he was proud of his “special operation”. And that despite the fact that one of his two grandfathers is Ukrainian. And the political muddlehead does not stop at words. Full-bodied and certainly accompanied by goodwill from the Kremlin, Plushenko announced a show tour through the two “people’s republics” in the Donbass.
Enough runners are available, because the Russian runners were excluded from the World Championships, which started in Montpellier on Wednesday. What Plushenko – one could expect nothing else – immensely outraged. “It’s discrimination. Without our runners, you won’t be interested in this event,” complained the ex-champion. Sports Minister Oleg Matyzin echoed the same horn: “World sport can’t develop without Russian sport. That will be figure skating set back several years.”
You can feel how hard the exclusion hits Russia in their winter Olympic discipline. The giant empire has been dominating the international scene for well over a decade. The last time they stayed without a World Cup medal was in Tokyo in 2007. In the meantime, Russian figure skating is well connected to the inner circle of the Kremlin, also on a private level: Tatjana Nawka, the 2006 Olympic champion in ice dance, has been the wife of Putin spokesman Dimitri Peskov for seven years.