Michael Settle: Sporting bans will hit home for Russians

There was a sense of inevitability that the International Paralympic Committee would finally recognise the elephant standing on its doorstep and perform a swift U-turn.

Having insisted that making Russian and Belarusian athletes compete as neutrals in the 2022 winter games in Beijing, which begin today, was the “harshest possible” punishment, it predictably had to cave in, faced with the prospect of some countries boycotting events in which Russian and Belarusian athletes were due to take part.

This means the bans on Russian sportsmen and women are growing from athletics and rugby to tennis and Formula 1.

Following a state-sponsored doping scandal, Russia was banned from participation at the 2016 summer Olympics but later allowed to do so in subsequent games with its athletes competing under the banner of the Russian Olympic Committee. Thankfully, this shameful cop-out was reversed after Russia invaded Ukraine and now all Russian athletes are banned.

Fifa, the world football body, also had difficulty seeing that elephant on the doorstep by, post the invasion, saying the national Russian team could compete in neutral territory under the title of the Football Union of Russia.

But, of course, this was unsustainable and public pressure meant it caved in and suspended the Russian national football team, meaning it will not participate in the World Cup in Qatar later this year.

As viewers in Russia watch international sporting events and notice none of their countrymen and women are competing, the kopek will surely begin to drop about how Putin has caused their country’s mass sporting and cultural isolation.

At PMQs, Keir Starmer pressed Boris Johnson on why Roman Abramovich, the Russian-Israeli owner of Chelsea football club, had not been sanctioned, given his “links to the Russian state” and “public association with corrupt activity and practices”.

The PM floundered and deflected the question by insisting that MPs should be “proud of what we have done already [on sanctions] and…there is more to be done”.

Barely 24 hours later, Abramovich announced he was selling up after nearly 20 years of owning Chelsea with a price-tag of £3 billion. His fire-sale also involves some £200 million worth of luxury properties in London; all in a bid to avoid having his assets frozen.

But the sloth-like speed of Government action is worrying politicians across parties.

Sir Keir pointed out how the Government’s forthcoming Economic Crime legislation to expose property ownership would not, if passed, come into force for 18 months.

Conservative backbencher Tobias Ellwood, who chairs the Commons Defence Committee, said other countries knew “how behind the curve we are on challenging oligarchs” and declared: “We need to be putting padlocks on their properties, we need a massive signal that shows the world we’re taking this seriously. The list of oligarchs we’re pursuing needs to increase tenfold.”

By contrast, German authorities have just seized the $600m superyacht belonging to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov in a Hamburg shipyard.

Michael Gove, the UK Government’s Housing Secretary, is now said to be considering rewriting property law to enable it to seize oligarchs’ homes without paying them compensation.

His Cabinet colleague Liz Truss, in Brussels today for more sanction talks with G7 and EU colleagues, has stressed how she is drawing up a sanctions “hit-list” of oligarchs and yet measures have only been announced against 11 people, none with close links to Britain.

Already a range of companies across tech, film, fashion, food, and energy sectors are loosening or cutting their links with Russia.

As Putin tightens his military squeeze on Ukraine, he is also cracking down on criticism at home.

The former KGB agent, who rules by repression, silences or imprisons his critics. And with the war in Ukraine, he is also adopting an approach straight out of George Orwell’s 1984 with “doublethink”.

In the novel, the Party’s slogans were contradictory – war is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength. But, in the modern-day Ministry of Truth that is the Kremlin, fiction has become fact with reality being changed to maintain Putin’s grip on power.

Speculation is growing Moscow could introduce martial law giving Russian authorities sweeping powers to limit freedom of movement and freedom of speech.

Today, the state Duma is set to discuss legislation, introducing criminal penalties for false news reports about Russian military operations. Russian authorities have already blocked access to two of the country's leading independent media outlets for spreading "deliberately false information" about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

After Dorries told MPs yesterday the Kremlin-backed broadcaster RT should lose its licence and “never again” be able to broadcast “poisonous propaganda” into British homes, Moscow appeared to threaten the discontinuation of the BBC’s service in Russia.

Maria Zakharova, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, condemned the banning of RT and said the only reason Russian journalists could still work in the UK was “related to London fears the BBC might be targeted in Russia because it plays a determined role in undermining Russian stability and security”.

The devastation being visited upon a democratic, independent European nation is down not to the Russian people but to the warped nationalistic pride of one man.

Slowly but surely, however, more and more ordinary Russian citizens will begin to notice how their lives are changing and not in a good way, whether it’s the run on banks, rising prices, the difficulty in paying their bills in the usual way or seeing their sportsmen and women banned from participating in major events.

Throughout history tyrants have invariably come to a sticky end. It may take some time but Putin, through his megalomaniacal actions, could well end up being one of them.