Russian Military Figure Enters Fencing Worlds as ‘Neutral’
The International Fencing Federation (FIE) has cleared several Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete at the upcoming World Championships in Tbilisi, Georgia — including Sofya Velikaya, a major in the Russian Armed Forces and a high-profile political figure in Russia, The Gaze reports, citing United 24 Media.
Velikaya, who served as a trusted representative of Vladimir Putin during the 2024 Russian presidential election, is listed as a “neutral” athlete, despite clear ties to Russia’s military and political leadership.
Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee has denounced the decision, citing the International Olympic Committee’s own neutrality rules, which prohibit athletes with direct ties to state military structures or political campaigns.
“Sofya Velikaya is a Russian citizen, a major in the Russian Armed Forces (as confirmed by the official CSKA website), and a trusted representative of Putin during the 2024 elections. According to IOC criteria, such a person cannot be recognized as neutral and has no right to participate in the international sports movement—let alone claim to represent the interests of athletes worldwide,” the committee said in a statement on July 6.
Ukrainian officials are urging the FIE to review the evidence and disqualify Velikaya from both competition and the upcoming elections for the Athletes’ Commission.
Ukraine’s National Olympic Committee, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the Fencing Federation of Ukraine jointly stressed that Russia and Belarus are using international sports as a propaganda tool rather than a platform for peace and dialogue.
This is not an isolated case. Ukrainian tennis player Lesia Tsurenko recently filed a lawsuit against the Women’s Tennis Association for failing to uphold the ban on Russian and Belarusian players who publicly support the war in Ukraine.
Read more on The Gaze: Ukrainian Sports Community Urges Exclusion of Russians from World Games