Useful liability

The fate of the Russian team, which should go to the Olympics in Rio, has not yet been determined - the final decision of the IOC is still ahead. But it is already clear that Russian athletes will have to forget about the Olympic medals: this is the decision of the sports arbitration court. Moreover, it applies to both athletes who are noticed in the use of doping, and those who were not convicted of this. Which made it possible to announce the "funeral of athletics" and the "political order" of the arbitration solutions to the two -time Olympic champion Elena Isinbaeva.

But Isinbaev is mistaken. This is not a "funeral of athletics." These are the funeral of modern Russian statehood. Just sports institutions that can afford to make decisions without taking into account their political consequences can state that this statehood is just a thieves' common fund, brazenly mocking the rules and principles that are adopted in the civilized world.

Then ordinary courts will make such decisions - when it comes, for example, to the verdict about the guilt of those who shot down the Malaysian Boeing. Again, these will not be the gunners of the Buk, not soldiers and officers, but the state itself. And the sanctions against him - like those that are involved in the civilized world against Russia today - will be affected not only by those who made decisions on aggression against Ukraine, not only those who supported this war, but also those who condemned this war. This is the logic of sanctions against government agencies.

In sports, the same - completely logical, by the way, are the rules. Individual athletes are excommunicated from competitions when they are the culprits of the use of prohibited drugs. When this application is organized and “roofed” by state structures, the whole team is responsible for it. And those who took doping, and those who preferred to do without it. Indeed, at the Olympic Games, the athlete represents not only himself, but also the state. The state, which trampled the rule and lied into the eyes of others for the sake of cardboard success and television courage.

I understand well how insulting to those Russian athletes who honestly trained and counted on victory. Probably as unpleasant as Russian citizens who expected to live in a prosperous European country, but ended up in a poor medieval despotism. It is as unpleasant as those Russians who opposed the occupation of Crimea and Donbass - and was forced to helplessly observe how “polite men” and other evil spirits on foreign lands.

When the state commits crimes, all its citizens find themselves in the same drowning boat. And everyone in his own way is forced to be responsible for the consequences of these crimes. Someone in the war died a relative. Someone is not able to buy quality products. Someone cannot get the necessary drugs for loved ones. Someone does not have funds for the trip that he dreamed about. Someone will not go to the Olympic Games and will not achieve a victory that was the meaning of several years of hard training. Someone will not be able to cheer on their idols.

And someone is just ashamed.