Let Russian Athletes Compete as Individuals

If we want to isolate and punish Putin, we shouldn't treat every Russian as a genocidal soldier.

So how much should we punish individual Russians?

Wimbledon has just banned Russians and people from Belarus in its tennis competition, and earlier the Boston Marathon barred Russians from competing as well. All this troubles me.

Maybe this is naive sentimentality, but my concern is two-fold: Targeting ordinary Russians seems unjust, and as a practical matter I fear it may help Putin rather than hurt him.

There’s always a tendency in war to demonize citizens on the other side. In 1944, for example, 13 percent of Americans said in a Gallup poll that the Allies should “exterminate” the Japanese people. We should be alert to that tendency to define all citizens in some foreign country together as “the enemy,” especially when thousands of Russians have shown enormous courage in protesting Putin and his war.

Has anyone stood up to Putin more courageously than Alexei Navalny, the dissident now in a labor camp? Even after he had been poisoned by Putin’s forces he returned to Russia and at his trial denounced Putin. Navalny has been way ahead of almost everyone else in standing up to Putin and recognizing him for the danger he is.

It is quite true that the majority of Russians probably support the war, and that many ordinary soldiers appear to have committed atrocities against Ukrainians. But Russia contains multitudes: It also contains thousands of people who have protested and endured arrest and abuse for standing up to Putin.

At a practical level, I also think we best undermine Putin if we can peel as many ordinary Russians away from him, rather than pushing all Russians together by defining them collectively as the enemy. That just leads to a “rally around the flag” effect that is just what Putin is trying to create. State television in Russia has emphasized these kinds of international sanctions against Russians, precisely to generate a backlash that will unite Russians behind Putin.

The story of this 41-year-old man, Alexander, underscores Russia’s brutality in Ukraine. He was fleeing Bucha with his wife, Margarita, and two sons, Matthew and Klim, aged nine and four. Russian forces killed his family in front of him and injured him so that his leg had to be amputated. Photo from @Ohmatdyt Hospital Instagram feed.

Granted, there are powerful counter-arguments that run against my position.

“It is our responsibility to play our part in the widespread efforts of government, industry, sporting and creative institutions to limit Russia’s global influence through the strongest means possible,” Wimbledon said in a statement. It also noted that Russia uses sport as part of its propaganda exercises, and that its sports figures take on roles as symbols of the nation.

One can also make the case that at a time when people are suffering mass atrocities in Ukraine that some define as genocide, it’s important for the international community to take every last step to express its revulsion, and to show Russians that their country will never be accepted in the international community so long as their country is slaughtering its neighbors.

As for my concern about Russians suffering unjustly, it’s fair to note that economic sanctions — which I support — are also devastating the lives of many ordinary Russians, indeed probably killing some of them by limiting access to critical pharmaceuticals. If I accept the deaths of some innocent Russians as the collateral effect of economic sanctions, why worry about a few wealthy tennis stars who can’t play at Wimbledon?

Fair enough. I think those are legitimate arguments. If I thought that banning athletes would hurt Putin, I’d accept the injustice; on the contrary, though, I’ve argued that these bans may actually help Putin.

Note that there are steps short of banning individual Russians that can pressure Russia. For example, the various tennis associations and the four Grand Slam tournaments all agreed to ban Russia and Belarus from team events but to allow individual Russians to compete, without national identification. One could even go further and ask participating Russians to renounce the invasion of Ukraine or any territorial ambitions there.

We want to bring Russians over to our side, to oppose Putin and the war, and we want to honor those who are bravely challenging Putin. That suggests we should not be treating every Russian tennis player or marathon runner as a Putin clone or genocidal soldier.

Your thoughts? I think plenty of people disagree with me on this one, and I’d welcome your arguments.