Before he became the president of Russia, and long before he became one of the most feared and hated leaders in the world today, Vladimir Putin was a judoka in Siero. He today he leads the military invasion of Ukraine in a blitzkrieg, but 24 years ago he walked through Asturias raising the flag of the values of sport. He stepped on the tatami of a gym in Lugones, where he trained for a few hours together with his team and slept in a hotel near Viella.
It was in the year 1998, Putin was, as they remember in the Sierense gym, the president of the Russian Judo Federationand as such participated for a few days (it was also a lightning visit) in the XLVI European Judo Championship, held at the Palacio de los Deportes in Oviedo between May 14 and 17 of that year. Fleeting memories remain of that visit, due to the briefness of his time in the region and the fact that the character was unknown to ordinary Asturians at the time. Only over the years would those responsible for the establishment recognize the blond and stocky guy who trained for a few hours at their premises, accompanying his country’s team. The Russians participated in the competition in Oviedo, they spent the night nearby and needed a space to exercise, they recall. Since the Lugo gym was free that day, there was no problem in its owners temporarily giving it to the athletes, who after training for a couple of hours – they were not charged for it – took a photo with the owners.
The graphic testimony remained hanging for several years on the walls of the gym and many still remember it, with the athletes in training and Putin among them, but the passage of time and a flood in the premises ended up misplacing a now historical document. Nobody thought at that time that Vladimir Putin would become who he is today, but the truth is that he already had a position in Moscow in the administration of the then president Boris Yeltsinhad been part of the KGB espionage service and shortly after his training in Lugones, when Yeltsin announced his resignation on December 31, 1999, the judoka became interim president of Russia.
Later he won the presidential elections of 2000 and would no longer move away from power, nor did he do so from judo. Over the years he has continued to train and take pride in his mastery of the sport, and in fact in 2012 he was awarded the 8th Dan by the International Judo Federation (IJF), a recognition that is considered one of the most important in this discipline. Now, with the armored cars taking Ukraine by force, the values that he claimed to champion have been as blurred as the photo that was taken one day in Siero.
