As we go through the war imposed on Ukraine from Russia’s authoritarian regime, we see more and more idiotic hatred against people of Russia.
Everyday I see more news about sanctions on Russian people and sports teams. Paralympics, football, tennis, motor sports, and lot other fields are now closed on Russian sport people.
I also heard news about an Italian university teaching of Fyodor Dostoevsky because he’s Russian.
Since the start of the war, I put up a banner on top of my site with a “Stand with Ukraine” statement to show my support for Ukrainian people but what is happening now is just dumb.
Russian people are not responsible for what their government does and I feel that in my bones as I too experience sanctions because of actions of my government.
People of Ukraine don’t need Russian people out of tennis courts or football pitch. Ukrainian people also like to read Dostoevsky.
I’m pretty sure nobody in Ukraine will be pleased to hear some innocent Russian person who tried hard to be able to participate in a competition was banned from it because of what that person had no influence on.
What Vladimir Putin does is what exactly a dictator does and people are not to blame for. Some are converting their support for Ukraine to hate towards Russia.
And by the way, weren’t sports and politics separate? For years, athletes around the world were punished because they refused to play against sports people from Israel. Iranians specifically have suffered much from this claim. Iranian Judo Federation is still banned because they refused to play against Israeli judokas.
I don’t advocate for ban on any sports person. In fact, I’m all in for separation of politics and sports as I see sports a wonderful way to achieve friendship between nations and people but this double standards are painful to see.
I hope the war ends very soon and we see peace everywhere in Europe, Middle East, and all around the world. And I hope we get rid of this stupid hatred we see today and do something else, like actually supporting victims of war with aids and goods.