Estonia Will Not Air Paralympics if Russian and Belarusian Athletes Compete Under National Flags

Estonia’s public broadcaster ERR has announced that it will not broadcast competitions from the 2026 Paralympic Games in Milan-Cortina if Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to compete under their national flags, the outlet said on its website.

The decision follows the International Paralympic Committee’s move to lift the suspension on athletes from Russia and Belarus. As a result, six Russian and four Belarusian competitors are set to participate under their respective national flags. Both countries had previously been barred from international competition after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Estonian Public Broadcasting unequivocally condemns the normalization of the actions of aggressor states through sport and the Olympic movement and denounces the decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in the Milano Cortina Paralympic Games under the flags of aggressor states,” said ERR’s head of sports editorial department, Rivo Saarna.

Saarna said the broadcaster currently intends to air the opening and closing ceremonies live. During those broadcasts, ERR will provide context about the decisions made by international sports bodies and explain the background surrounding the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes.

“At the same time, this issue, together with possible reactions during live ceremony broadcasts, is under discussion in other public-service television channels of the European Broadcasting Union, and depending on the outcome of those decisions, we are prepared to expand restrictions on Paralympic Games broadcasts as well,” Saarna added.

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Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has criticized the decision to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under their state symbols at the Winter Paralympics. He said the move “insults the Paralympic community and all of Ukraine” and damages trust in international sport.

Sybiha argued that the flags and anthems of aggressor states represent governments waging an aggressive war and that displaying those symbols at sporting events “justifies the crimes” committed by Russian forces and their Belarusian allies.

In its statement, the ministry said Russia had transformed sport into “an instrument of war against the free world” and accused the Russian Paralympic movement of glorifying participants in the war while rewarding support for the aggression.

Earlier, the Russian Paralympic Committee stated that approximately 500 veterans of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine are now integrated into the country’s national and regional Paralympic teams.

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