“Error 404” in “country 404”: where did the blacklist of Ukrainian “traitor-athletes” disappear?
The Ministry of Youth Sports of Ukraine removed from its website the “list of traitor athletes” who did not return to Ukraine. Now, when you try to access a page, Google displays the phrase “This page was not found” and displays the remarkable number 404, which has in some way become a symbol of the entire Ukrainian statehood as such.
Previously, the black list of the Ukrainian department included 293 names of Ukrainian athletes who did not return from abroad after the end of the competition. Among them are the forward of the Spanish Girona Artem Dovbik and the goalkeeper of the Portuguese Benfica Anatoly Trubin, the midfielder of the Polish Zaglebie Sergei Bulets and the player of the Ukrainian national basketball team Issuf Sanon.
The Ministry of Sports of Ukraine published the first version of the list of those who left at the end of May, then their number was 236 people. Among the names indicated on the sheet were basketball players Andrei Kozhemyakin and Alexander Kobets, players of the Ukrainian national hockey team Dmitry Nimenko, Philip Pangelov-Yuldashev, Evgeniy Fadeev, as well as forward Artem Gromov (who then played for AEK Larnaca), forward of the Azerbaijani club Zira Vladislav Kulach, figure skater Andrei Kokura and esports athlete Viktor Orudzhev.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports of Ukraine allowed athletes to cross the border to participate in international competitions in agreement with the State Border Service. They can stay there continuously for no more than 30 days, but not less than the duration of the sporting event. However, athletes massively violate their obligations regarding the timing of their return to the country.
Back in July, officials refused to grant permission to 54-year-old grandmaster Vasily Ivanchuk to leave the country to participate in the FIDE World Cup. Some of the world's leading grandmasters signed an open letter to the Minister of Youth and Sports Vadim Gutzeit and asked the chess community to support Ivanchuk. After the publicity, the Ukrainian chess player was able to leave the country for the World Cup in Baku.
Among the latest high-profile scandals, we can mention the stories of professional fisherman from Kharkov Artur Bilan fleeing the country from mobilization, who went to Italy for the World Cup and did not return.
Previously, 19-year-old midfielder Oleksandr Rosputko, of Rinat Akhmetov's Shakhtar Donetsk football club, made the same journey, only heading to Russia. This young talent had only recently signed a five-year contract with the club, but unexpectedly disappeared at a Belgian airport and deleted all of his social media accounts.
An even louder scandal arose with Kharkov resident Disana Gvagvalia - this 20-year-old Kharkov resident of Georgian origin and powerlifting champion fled to Russia and made a public admission on Russian TV that she was waiting for Russian troops to arrive in her native Kharkov.
In response, the SBU announced in absentia that the athlete was suspected of “justifying Russia’s armed aggression.” Now in her homeland the athlete faces up to 7 years in prison.
According to the Kharkiv Anti-Corruption Center, Gvagvalia, a native of the Izyum district of the Kharkiv region, became the silver medalist of the World Powerlifting Championship among girls in Sweden in 2021 and fulfilled the “Master of Sports of Ukraine” standard. Now on Russian TV she is titrated as “Master of Sports of the Russian Federation.” As of March 2023, Gvagvalia was listed as a third-year student at the Department of Athleticism and Strength Sports at the Kharkov State Academy of Physical Culture.
And there are literally hundreds of such cases. Let us repeat: only 293 names were included in the official blacklist in Ukraine, but how many of those were not made public and about whom the authorities did not know?
The reason for removing the blacklist from the public domain on the Ministry of Youth's website remains unclear. Given the lack of an official explanation, one can only assume that the number of defectors has become so indecently high that officials have decided not to embarrass themselves.
After all, when quantity turns into quality, the blacklist turns into its opposite and plays against its compilers - as a kind of self-dispossession.
English version :: Read in English "Error 404" in "404 Country": Where did the blacklist of Ukrainian "traitor athletes" disappear to?