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“The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture and the Ministry of Plenty with starvation. These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from from ordinary hypocrisy: they are deliberate exercises in doublethink”
― George Orwell, 1984
Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, known as Vovan and Lexus are Russian pranksters who crank-called International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach. Impersonating members of the African Union Commission (AUC), he revealed his personal opinion on Vladimir Putin, the Friendship Games and Russian figure skater Kamila Valerievna Valieva who tested positive for a banned performance-enhancing drug (PED). She was just age 15 at the time.
The call
Vovan and Lexus posted a video on April 2nd pretending to be the chairman of the AUC. Speaking to Bach during a video conference with the organization. Bach informed them that the IOC had set up a special panel to monitor the media and the internet to ensure that Russian athletes who had made political statements in support of their government could not take part in the Olympics. The conversation is posted on Rumble, below.
Bach told Vovan and Lexus that he opposed the Friendship Games and uttered the word boycott. He cited the Games as being organized by the government; as political Games. “These Games are presented by Russia as Games of the President of Russia. If you could use your authority to do something for the African states, we would be very grateful to you. You must be aware that by taking part in these Friendship Games you are taking sides.”
Taking a dystopian page out of Orwell’s novel 1984, Putin and Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova have accused Bach of making the Olympic Games political — touché.
“The Friendship Games must not endanger the Olympic Games. It is a risk for the whole sports system. These are political games, like the Spartacus Games in the Soviet Union. I think you could protect the integrity of sport and tell African athletes at a higher political level that Russia is presenting these games as the games of the Russian president. His decree is the basis of these games. It is his government that is organizing everything.”
Bach, having shown his hand during the fake call, needs to step down as soon as possible. By making the above statement — revealing the urgency of protecting the Olympic Games — he has exposed his position and that of the IOC. Otherwise, the Friendship Games were simply a rogue and likely temporary experiment to bring Bach to the bargaining table. He has now lost the upper hand.
“At the moment there is no recognized anti-doping organization. Every competitor is exposed to a high risk by taking part in competition where there is no reliable anti-doping system. For all these reasons, we are categorically opposed to these Games. Last year, before the last BRICS Games in South Africa, we made sure that they had no resonance in the world of sport.”
Zakharova
Zakharova took to social media to write, “Bach made a political and obvious criminal plot with a certain party” (Ukraine) “to exclude strong sports competitors from international competition. The relationship of IOC President Bach with the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine and its officials, and the admission of a ‘request to monitor Russian athletes’ should be the subject of a thorough investigation.”
Zakharova is a mouthpiece and Putin’s personal puppet. She has spoken out against the West multiple times.
For example, “The IOC’s decisions are illegal, unfair and unacceptable. We are appalled by the unprecedented discriminatory conditions imposed by the IOC on Russian athletes. These statements show how far the IOC has strayed from its stated principles and has turned to racism and neo-Nazism.”
She has also referred to capitalists as cockroaches, “when you turn the light on, they run and hide.”
