Post
by Paul McKeown » Mon Mar 07, 2022 11:10 pm
I am fairly sure that some of the voices here most loudly opposed to the ban would have been enraged when Zola Budd was helped by a rightwing British sh*terag to dodge the sporting sanctions imposed on South Africa. South Africa had then a thoroughly reprehensible government, and many South Africans will tell you that it wasn't the economic sanctions that destroyed Apartheid but the cultural and sporting sanctions which hurt the pride terribly of a nation with a strong sporting tradition.
(I have sometimes heard that Apartheid was a unique evil, which is why they were sanctioned and not other countries. In practise, though, there have been and are a number of governments which practise ruthless racial, ethnic, linguistic, religious or cultural discrimination not only in practice but also in law.)
One thing that could be said in favour of the then horrendous Apartheid government was that it at least did not issue five separate threats of turning the world into a nuclear wasteland within the space of a week.
I don't understand the double standard of those aforesaid posters - although again it would be probably be a pointless endeavour to attempt to.
Those that say sport and politics should never mix, well, at least there isn't a double standard involved, rather a naive belief. Sport has long been a propaganda weapon close to the heart of the world's worst fascists and tyrants of other stripe. It certainly is in the case of the present Russian regime.
My heart does go out to the Russians who are entirely innocent of this. Indeed what I miss in the current national dialogue is any recognition that many Russians are chosing to leave their country - dissidents who seek asylum as they are no longer welcome or safe in the country that gave them birth. Not only is the present UK government's asylum policy a niggardly disgrace in terms of those displaced from their home in Ukraine but even worse in not even recognising that many Russians may also have need of help.
I don't believe that exempting minors is of much help to them. Children can be very cruel, and I sadly suspect that many young Russians at school in the UK will face bullying for something that is entirely out of their control. Retaining their FIDE nationality is likely to be low down on their list of priorities, way down after doing their homework, getting a good score on their favourite video game, studying the Sicilian and avoiding the git who keeps calling them a "Ruskie" and laughing.
On a practical level, please, which is where this forum is often at its best, what is the process for changing FIDE nationality? Whom does one contact? I ask on behalf of some that are affected.