Photo via The Medal Count/Twitter Viktoria Listunova and Vladislava Urazova, who were part of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold winning ROC women&...
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| Photo via The Medal Count/Twitter |
Viktoria Listunova and Vladislava Urazova, who were part of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic gold winning ROC women's artistic gymnastics team, were seen taking part at a huge flag-waving rally at a Moscow stadium today.
There, Russian president Vladimir Putin justified the invasion of Ukraine and promised that all the Kremlin’s aims would be achieved.
The rally was attended by more than 200,000 people, according to Moscow police.
Listunova and Urazova, along with Russian rhythmic gymnasts Dina and Arina Averina, attended the pro-war rally as VIPs.
They wore their Olympic medals along with the Russian pro war symbol 'Z'.
There have been reports that many showed up after being pressured into going by their employers or superiors.
It is worth mentioning that both Listunova and Urazova are under the 18 years of age, while the Averina twins are 23 years old.
"You can be disgusted by the photo of listy [Listunova] and vlada [Vladislava] while simultaneously acknowledge that they likely have 0 control over their attendance and probably even their political opinions. Your emotions should be directed at the Russian government, not kids who do sports," a Twitter user wrote.
"i don’t really know what to say about listy/maybe vlada being at the pro-w*r rally except there’s a lot of context to consider in it. as government funded athletes, they are EMPLOYEES of the government, so if they didn’t attend, they could stand to lose a lot," another user wrote.
"yes, the behavior being demonstrated by vlada and listy is gross but pls remember that we don't directly know their viewpoints and they are children being used as pawns in a giant political game!"
"It bugs the hell out of me that of all the Russian WAGs Putin's government decided to exploit for its pro-war propaganda, they selected the two youngest and thus most vulnerable and least likely to understand the ramifications of what they were being used for."
Russian and Belarusian athletes and officials, including judges, have been banned from taking part in FIG [International Gymnastics Federation] competitions or FIG-sanctioned competitions from 7 March 2022 until further notice in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which took place on Feb 24th.
Listunova and Vladislava competed at the 2022 Doha World Cup, which is the last international competition for the Russians to compete to date, winning gold on uneven bars and balance beam respectively.
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