Part of Putin’s propaganda
Cross-country skier from Russia takes on Olympic boss Bach
Cross-country skier Veronika Stepanova is one of the flagship athletes of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. On Instagram, the Olympic champion is now criticizing the Russian boycott of the IOC.
Veronika Stepanova is the new figurehead of Russian women’s cross-country skiing. And not just on the cross-country ski run, but also on Instagram, where she serves up plain text to her more than 93,000 followers.
There, the Olympic relay champion from Beijing is now taking on IOC President Thomas Bach: “I promise you, Mr. Bach, that I will train with triple energy so that it is you and nobody else who will award me a medal in future games ! I don’t know regarding you, but it will give me a special pleasure to see your face at the same time.”
Stepanova posts an interview that Bach gave to the Bild newspaper. In it he explains his decision to call on all international federations to exclude Russian athletes and events. Bach in the picture interview: “We have made this recommendation and it is certain. It is not time to reverse this recommendation and attitude. We also advise once morest inviting Russian or Belarusian athletes: no anthems, no flags, no colors. And we made a decision for the first time in the history of the IOC: We revoked a medal that Russia’s President Putin received in 2001.”
Such decisions are extra motivation for cross-country skier Stepanova. Because the 21-year-old stands like a wall behind President Vladimir Putin and his war once morest Ukraine. At a ceremony in the Kremlin in April, Stepanova said: “Putin is on the right track and we will definitely win, just like we won at the Olympic Games.” Her Kremlin speech caused a lot of criticism from the international cross-country skiing scene. (cmu)
