Russia uses sports as propaganda tool in occupied territories of Ukraine

According to the center, sport has always been an important part of the international image of any state, a means of "soft power." And for totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, it has become a weapon of propaganda for their own ideology.

"For example, the 1934 FIFA World Cup and the 1936 Olympic Games played an important role in the propaganda of the Italian fascists and the German Nazis. Hitler and Mussolini wanted not only to organize and conduct these sporting events in an exemplary manner but also to show the world the victorious results and the "superiority" of their nations and political regimes over their competitors," the Center explained.

The USSR was not far behind, using sport to propagate communist ideology and fight the "capitalist bloc" during the Cold War. This confrontation culminated in the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, which were boycotted by 65 countries in protest of Soviet aggression in Afghanistan.

"This is the path that Russia continues to follow. Having created the so-called "Russian Student Sports Union," it is launching its "tentacles" into all Ukrainian territories that it has managed to annex. Therefore, recently in the Donetsk region, they presented such a "union" that will unite young people around them and brainwash them with its propaganda of greatness and power. As they say, all methods are acceptable," the Center emphasized.

The occupiers are planning to bring Russians to the occupied territories in the summer to organize branches of the Federal Service for Supervision of Education.