FIE removed Russian woman Kobzeva from the list of participants in the Fencing European Championship, who supports the war in Ukraine

The European Fencing Championship will be held on June 16-18

International Fencing Federation (FIE) removed from the list of participants European Championship 2023 fencing Russian woman Valery Kobzev. The athlete supports Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.

Valeria supports the war in Ukraine, the athlete has repeatedly liked posts on social networks devoted to Russian military aggression. The publications contained the symbols V and Z.

The list of participants in the European Championship 2023 in fencing still contains five representatives of the Russian Federation. Under a neutral flag, epee fencers Artem Sargsyan, Yana Bekmurozova and Polina Khaertinova, as well as saber fencers Elena Lisina and Anna Smirnova, are allowed to participate.

On March 10, 2023, an extraordinary congress of the International Fencing Federation was held online, which decided to return to competitions under the auspices of the FIE Russian and Belarusian athletes, as well as officials from these countries. The decision came into force in the second half of April 2023.

The Fencing Federation of Ukraine twice filed a request to block this decision, but their protest was not satisfied. At the same time, the Lithuanian Fencing Federation and the Scandinavian Fencing Union did not support the decision of the International Fencing Federation.

In turn, the FFU twice sent an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne. The Fencing Federation of Ukraine asks to impose a ban on taking any actions aimed at fulfilling the decision of the Extraordinary FIE Congress, namely, to ban athletes from Russia and Belarus from participating in tournaments.

The 2023 European Fencing Championships will be held June 16-18 in Plovdiv, Bulgaria.

Source: Sportarena

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