Sports organizations worldwide are stripping honorary sporting titles away from Russian President Vladimir Putin in the wake of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, along with banning athletes from Russia and Belarus from competing in international events.
The moves come after the International Olympic Committee recommended the athletes' bans and said it has withdrawn its highest award, the Olympic Order, from Putin, reports CNN Tuesday.
The IOC said its ruling was made to withdraw not only Putin's honor, awarded in 2001, but from "all persons who currently have an important function in the government of the Russian Federation or other government-related high-ranking position" based on the "extremely grave violation of the Olympic Truce and other violations of the Olympic Charter by the Russian government in the past."
The Olympic Truce began seven days before the start of the Beijing Winter Olympics on Feb. 4 and ends seven days after the closing of the March 4-13 Paralympic Games.
In addition, World Taekwondo on Monday took away Putin's honorary black belt, saying in a statement that it "strongly condemns the brutal attacks on innocent lives in Ukraine, which go against the World Taekwondo vision of 'Peace is More Precious than Triumph' and the World Taekwondo values of respect and tolerance. In this regard, World Taekwondo has decided to withdraw the honorary 9th dan black belt conferred to Mr. Vladimir Putin in November 2013."
The organization also said that the national flags of Russia or Belarus will not be displayed at its events, nor will their national anthems be played and that no taekwondo events will be organized or recognized in either country.
World Taekwondo's decision came after the International Judo Federation (IJF) announced Sunday it was suspending Putin's status as its honorary president and ambassador. The European Judo Union also dropped Putin as its honorary president.
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the International Swimming Federation (FINA) withdrew its highest honor, the FINA Order, that it had awarded Putin in 2014 in recognition of his "important support" in organizing major FINA events in Russia.
The organization also said teams or athletes from Russia and Belarus can't compete under their countries' names or flags but could be accepted in competitions as neutral participants.
The move came after FINA on Sunday canceled its World Junior Championships, which were scheduled to be held in August in Kazan, Russia. However, the organization's World Short-Course Championships, scheduled in Kazan in December is still on.
"FINA remains deeply concerned about the impact of the war on the aquatics community and the wider population of Ukraine," the organization said in a statement, adding that it will "continue to carefully monitor the grave situation and make further decisions as appropriate."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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