The Sochi book chapter

Przegląd Wschodnioeuropejski

The topic of this article is the function of sport in Russia’s bilateral relations with the Baltic States. The author attempts to define the goals which the Russian Federation wants to accomplish by using sport as a ‘soft power’ in relations with the Baltic States. The concept of the article is based on an analysis of three forms of sport politicisation described in the subject literature – as a collector (a carrier of certain values or ideas), a catalyst (a factor initiating processes or events) and a facilitator (the means facilitating communication and understanding). The examples provided as an illustration of the theses relate to the events that took place from 2002 to 2018. The source material consists predominantly of information obtained from online information portals, such as Delfi, RIA, Nowosti and Postimees. The analysis has showed that, in its relations with the Baltic States, Russia tries to use sport to strengthen its position and improve its image internationally. It...

GYMNASIUM

For a long time in the theory of international relations, the role of sport in promoting and developing relations between different states was neglected, which attracted criticism from specialists such as, for example, Trevor Taylor. The need for studies on the role of sports movement in the development of international relations was pointed out by Peter Beck, who pointed out that the theory of international relations has kept an appreciable distance from sport. In this paper I want to fill this information gap based on a series of unprocessed documents, primary sources, found especially in the Balkan region. Sport overcame the barrier of behaviors and social processes that are based on spending free time, succeeding through the involvement of politics to become a "player" in the arena of international relations.

PONARS Eurasia Policy Memo, 2013

2018

This thesis seeks to show through both historical and contemporary examples what makes Russia an ‘outlier’ among key sports mega-events hosts. More specifically, this thesis sets out to establish how external and internal objectives Russia pursued in the context of the 1980 Olympics and the 2014 Sochi Olympics differed from those of other sports mega-event hosts, including non-liberal states. The originality of this thesis lies not only in the fact that it sheds light on Russia’s strategy of sports mega-event hosting, but that it does so from the vantage point of the combination of the three most popular approaches in the extant sports mega-event research: public diplomacy, place branding and soft power. Moreover, this study places Russia’s hosting of sports mega-events within constructivist international relations theory, which prioritises identity and interests. In this respect, this research, by uncovering Russia’s motives behind sports mega-events hosting, seeks to add predictab...

Rome, IAI, May 2022, 29 p. (IAI Papers ; 22|09), ISBN 978-88-9368-247-3, 2022

In response to Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, the International Olympic Committee and international sports federations took a number of exceptional measures: among them, the exclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes from most international sports competitions and a ban on organising events on Russian territory. These measures were officially framed not as sanctions, but rather as a way to defend the neutrality of the sporting domain. In reality, they were the result of pressures from Western governments, public opinions, sports organisations and athletes, and highlighted the constitutive entanglement between international sport and international politics at both the organisational and symbolic level. Setting an important precedent, the sanctions against Russia may carry significant implications for the governance of international sport in the future, potentially leading to greater attention to humanitarian and human rights considerations, but also to increased fragmentation.

Euxeinos 12 (2013), pp. 6–14., 2013

President Vladimir Putin’s claim and policies to resurrect Russia as a great power have been a cornerstone for the construction of the hegemonic position of power that he has for so long successfully exerted and upheld. This paper discusses the Russian great power ambitions in relation to national identity and popular appeal, and puts them in relation to the upcoming Winter Games in Sochi in 2014. The paper examines how this mega-event is discursively constructed as a manifestation of Russia’s return to great power status, and as such is meant to convey certain messages internally as well as externally. The successful carrying out of the Games would no doubt constitute an important component in the undergirding of the – otherwise visibly dwindling - legitimacy of President Putin. They would be an important display window for manifesting the prowess of the Russian great power, and the location of the Games to the Caucasian city of Sochi in the Russian South would have a deeply symbolical aspect. If the Games can be successfully carried out in a region that has for so long been experienced as volatile and unruly, then it must surely mean that internal order has been restored in the Russian great power. However, it is argued in the article that there are several potential tripwires on the way towards achieving these symbolically important goals. Problems of security, terrorism, geopolitical volatility, large-scale corruption and inter-ethnic tension loom large, and may all turn out to be formidable obstacles and render the hosting of the Games a counter-productive enterprise. The paper puts official discourse (as in official speeches, media interviews, et cetera) in relation to scholarly analyses of the problems and potentialities of the Sochi Olympics, all in the general framework of Russia’s self-image and identity as a great power.

Political significance of sport is usually bound with international rivalry and conflict. However, sport tends to have a role in fostering international dialogue and cooperation as well. Th e aim of the article is to present the most important examples of this role of international sport. There is a number of examples verifying the hypothesis about consensual role of sport in international politics. Despite political significance, sport is not purely a part of the world of politics. Th is situation grants sport with an advantage in possibility of establishing international cooperation. Some actions that could seem completely impossible concerning political reality, turned out to be possible in sport. Sports contacts can pave the way for a further, political agreements. For instance a number of specific ‘sports diplomacies’ have taken place, that were used by some countries in order to enhance their capabilities of impacting the international political system.

2013

The International Journal of the History of Sport, 2018

Russia's (and the USSR's) use of sports mega-events (SMEs) makes this BRICS country (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) not only an outlier among emerging states, but also among key SME hosts generally. In this paper the authors argue that both the historic Moscow Olympics (1980) and the more recent hosting of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics provide evidence that Russia has, on both occasions, focused on geopolitical priorities using hard power (military might) at the expense of soft power acquisition. Further, the authors advance the notion that first and foremost both Olympics were used to pursue domestic soft power goals, which, again, makes Russia an outlier in terms of the political use of sports mega-events by states in the literature on this subject. The 1980 Olympic Games, therefore, in terms of their potential to generate soft power and national unity, turned out to be a misused opportunity for Russia. The authors explore the extent to which this is specific to Russia and whether the first Russian Olympics could provide valuable insight into the modern-day hosting of sports megaevents by Russia (2014/2018).