Skater Shabalin called Russian athletes hostages of what is happening in politics | Person | culture

The famous figure skater, Olympic medalist and now director Maxim Shabalin became the guest of honor at the Crystal Istochnik film festival. He visited the film screening with his wife, actress Irina Grineva and daughter Vasilisa.

In an interview with aif.ru, Maxim Shabalin commented on sports news, which today sounds completely unfortunate for Russian athletes: the Russian flag and anthem are banned at the Olympics and international competitions, and the athletes themselves are required to sign cheeky papers.

“Of course, all this is very sad,” Shabalin said. – Athletes in this situation are hostages to what is happening in the world today. An athlete’s job is to compete. And for an athlete, performance at the Olympic Games is, in fact, the main event in life. Now I am extremely sorry for those athletes who had this time. Therefore, I can only wish them strength and some opportunities to show their talent and fulfill themselves, doing their whole life’s work, despite this situation.

It should be noted that the 1st Crystal Istochnik Children’s Film Festival was held in Essentuki with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives. According to the president of the festival, Honored Artist of Russia Euclid Kurdzidis, it was previously held within the framework of the festival of popular film genres “Crystal Source” as a project “Cinema campus-children”, but in the last two years it has become an independent event .

The organizers called patriotism the main theme of the festival. Participants answered the topical question: “Where does the Motherland begin?”

Earlier, Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin called the IOC’s recommendations on the participation of the Russian Federation in the Olympics unacceptable.