On September 22-24 in Podgorica (Montenegro) during the 14th Open Balkan Jiu-Jitsu Championship among young men and women, a political scandal occured unexpectedly for the sporting event.
As reported by the Telegram channel “The Kremlin laundress”, local authorities from the very beginning began to literally scoff at the guys from the Russian team.
For a start, they were refused to settle in the hotel for a long time, and only after a long squabble a team of 35 people finally settled in the Evropa Hotel near the railway station.
Then the organizers of the competition did everything to ensure that on the form of the team there were no indications they are from Russia.
“Despite all the cavils and frank mockeries, our guys keep bravely and remain calm,” the mother of one of the Russian participants, Anna Kaplunenko, who is in Podgorica, said during the phone talk with the Moscow newspaper. “Strange things are happening here. We, like all the teams, immediately handed over the kimono of our guys and girls, so that the organizers would put on them emblems. However, after a while we received the “clean” kimono, and when we asked where the coat of arms of Russia, we were told that these patches were “somewhere lost.” The most interesting. That no other team had any “lost” patches, it only affected our Russian team. “
Nevertheless, our boys and girls are very successful: the Russian team is rightfully considered one of the strongest, and traditionally takes first place in such competitions. Perhaps, namely because there’s such a “special” attitude of Montenegrin authorities and organizers of the tournament.
Apparently, arranging artificial problems for young Russian athletes, Montenegrin authorities want to show their loyalty to American and European masters in this way, and justify their country’s accession to NATO. At the same time they went on the “easy way”, and decided to “recoup” on children who came to international sports competitions at the invitation of the same Montenegrin organizers. This can not be regarded otherwise than as a provocation against the Russians, and the violation of all norms of international law.
Sport should remain out of politics, especially when it comes to children.