“According to Sergei Naryshkin, head of the Russian Intelligence Service, the US administration is seriously concerned that the campaign they have launched to isolate Russia in top-level sports is failing,” the report said.
The SVR clarified that international sports federations show reluctance in considering the policy the US is pursuing when it comes to excluding Russian athletes from sports competitions.
This is highlighted by the fact that “too many” Global South countries wish to participate in the “Games of the Future”, “BRICS Games” and “World Friendship Games”, organized by Russia, the statement read.
Multipolarity as Immediate Threat to US Global Dominance
“Washington officials believe that the world sports witness basically the same pattern of growing multipolarity, deemed dangerous for Western global dominance, mirroring the larger trend on the global arena,” the release said.
To maintain its dominance, the US is increasingly trying to disrupt sporting events organized in Russia. They see the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and its president Witold Banka in particular, as one of the most important tools, the SVR noted.
“The Americans assume that Banka seeks a successful career after his WADA tenure comes to an end in 2025, and in order to get a plum job down the line, he will act as their ‘watchdog’," the release said.
The WADA president has “zealously taken on discrediting competitions organized by Russia," and foreign athletes who plan to take part in them are “threatened that their Olympic careers will die, no later than this summer in Paris."
“Yet, Banka’s frantic fighting with Russia has already started yielding quite opposite results. Banka’s policy that is clearly pro-US and is detrimental to the world sports is increasingly more irritating in professional circles,” the statement also read.