Photo: AFP/LETA
Gints Narogs, “Latvijas Avīze”, JSC “Latvijas Mediji”
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided to deprive Vladimir Putin of the Olympic Order and the leading taekwondo organization a black belt.
The Olympic Order, which is actually a gold-plated necklace, is the highest award of the Olympic Movement, which was introduced in 1975. Putin joined the Olympic Order in 2001.
Eight years ago at the Sochi Olympics, the same orders were given to Russia’s current deputy prime minister, Dmitry Chernyshenko, and deputy head of the presidential administration, Dmitry Kozak, who, along with Putin, has become the first in the history of this award to be deprived of regalia. The Olympic orders were never taken away by such men as Romanian Nikolai Ceausescu and German Erik Honeker.
The World Taekwondo, a taekwondo umbrella organization, has also removed Putin’s ninth black belt. The most painful thing for Putin could be the decision of the International Judo Federation (IJF) to remove him from the organization’s honorary president, because judo is a sport in Putin’s youth that had been replaced by hockey in recent years.
Themes
