"This is not about a few individual athletes. This is a systematic campaign involving soldiers and those who openly support putin. Yes, military officer Sofya Velikaya — a major in the russian army is not just a fencer. She is a tool of state propaganda, part of a massive machine that has justified w@r and violence for years."
Olga Kharlan
Two open letters were published on Thursday. The organisation Global Athlete distributed an Open Letter to the International Fencing Federation (FIE) from over 440 international fencers. The office of the European Fencing Confederation (EFC) sent a letter entitled ‘Call for dialogue’, the content of which corresponded to the athletes' statement.
Essentially, they criticise the latest statement by the Fédération Internationale d'Escrime (FIE) on the admission of Russian and Belarusian fencers and teams as so-called Athlete Individual Neutral (AIN) under the FIE flag. Athletes and the EFC claim that they were not consulted prior to the FIE's decision.
The EFC, whose president, Pascal Tesch (Luxembourg), is a member of the FIE's COMEX, questions the neutrality and competence of the FIE to decide on this matter.
