The State Duma of the Russian Federation is preparing a bill obliging domestic athletes to pay compensation in the event of a change of citizenship

The State Duma of the Russian Federation is preparing a bill obliging domestic athletes to pay compensation if they change citizenship. It has become relevant in recent months thanks to an already very noticeable trend. Several dozen Russian athletes, including quite well-known ones, who lost the opportunity to compete in top competitions due to international sanctions, moved to the national teams of other countries in order to return it.

The fact that the Committee of the State Duma of the Russian Federation on physical culture and sports is preparing a bill on compensation in the event of a change of citizenship, said TASS. The draft document says that if “an athlete who is or was a candidate for the sports team of the Russian Federation” is registered by a “sports federation of a foreign state and (or) another foreign sports organization to participate in international sports competitions”, he “is obliged make a compensation payment to the Russian organization “that carried out his sports training, in the amount of expenses incurred for his sports training.” However, there are a number of caveats. An athlete may be exempted from payment of compensation if “within three years prior to the moment of his registration as a candidate for a sports team of a foreign state, he was not a candidate for the sports team of the Russian Federation”, and also “if he or his legal representatives paid for the training on their own “. The document notes that the procedure for calculating the compensation payment “is developed by the relevant all-Russian sports federation and approved by the federal executive body in the field of physical culture and sports,” that is, the Ministry of Sports of the Russian Federation.

Dmitry Svishchev, chairman of the relevant committee of the State Duma, speaking about compensation, explained that “this is the money of our taxpayers, which should not be wasted.”

The bill has become relevant in recent months due to a process that by mid-summer has acquired the features of if not a mass phenomenon, then a fairly stable trend that threatens domestic sports with serious losses. We are talking about the transfer of Russian athletes to the national teams of other countries, who, due to international sanctions, after the start of a special military operation in Ukraine, were deprived of the opportunity to participate in top competitions. In March, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) softened last year’s “isolation” recommendations against Russia, authorizing the admission of its representatives to such tournaments. However, the softening effect is not yet very clear. Many sports federations refuse to follow the new guidelines of the IOC, and those who do tend to weed out a significant part of the Russians with the help of “filters” invented by the parent structure. In particular, they provide for a ban on the admission of those who “actively” support the special operation and have ties with the armed forces of the Russian Federation and “national security” agencies. The change of citizenship returns to athletes the opportunity to compete at the top level.

Versions of various sources about how many Russian athletes have already taken advantage of the option over the past year and a half differ. But in any case, it is at least a few dozen people.

In the drafted “Sport-Express” The list includes about fifty athletes who changed their citizenship.

Among them there are well-known athletes who were considered as contenders for Olympic medals or serious achievements in other competitions. For example, figure skaters Diana Davis and Gleb Smolkinrower Anna Prakaten, wrestler Dauren Kurugliev, swimmer Anastasia Kirpichnikova, chess players Alexandra Kosteniuk, Kirill Alekseenko and Alexei Sarana, boxer Murat Gassiev, cyclists Pavel Sivakov and Mikhail Yakovlev, speed skater Elizaveta Golubeva. The geography of their choice is very wide – from the countries of the former USSR (Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Georgia) to the states of Eastern (Serbia) and Western Europe (France, Switzerland, Spain, Great Britain) and even North America.

Sports manager Andrei Mitkov, in a conversation with Kommersant, called the bill “absolutely logical” and “long overdue.”

“In no other area does the Russian state invest so much in the training of professionals. At the same time, athletes are used to taking his help for granted, as something natural. Take the same Elizaveta Golubeva. Five years have passed since the moment when, as a junior, at the beginning of the last decade, she first entered the list of members of the national teams of the Sports Training Center, until the moment when she won the World Championship award for the first time. All this time, the state provided for her,” he said. According to the expert, the law on the payment of compensation “at least disciplines the athletes.”

The 2006 Olympic champion in speed skating, State Duma deputy Svetlana Zhurova, meanwhile, admitted TASSthat the process of recovering compensation from Russian athletes who have changed their citizenship will be complicated due to legal details. “If such a law is adopted, it will be necessary to sign documents on obligations with young athletes. And all this will need to be calculated, ”she added.

Alexey Dospekhov