The pranksters came on behalf of a high-ranking African politician to the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency.
Photo: Personal archive
Russian pranksters Vovan (Vladimir Kuznetsov) and Lexus (Alexey Stolyarov) decided to find out how the West views the fact that the World Friendship Games will be held in Russia.
On behalf of a certain high-ranking African politician, they called the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), Witold Banka, who told him about the existence of an entire anti-Russian conspiracy.
Banka did not even try to deny his intentions. He wants the World Friendship Games to be stopped.
– They look very bad from the point of view of public relations, from the point of view of values. Then we definitely won’t be there. We will not monitor the anti-doping program during these Games. And we will not supervise these Games. So from a sporting point of view, from WADA’s point of view, this event is not looking so good. It is definitely not good, he noted, stating bluntly that the agency he heads intends to make every effort to prevent Western athletes from attending the Friendship Games, and that this is all a political issue, not sporty.
Witold Banka
Photo: Personal page of the hero of the publication on the social network.
“We must stop this, or at least make these Games extremely meaningless,” Banka fumed. We know very well that sport is very strong in Russia. And I think that’s why they know that they need to promote sports, sports are very important to them. That is why it is necessary to ensure that this event does not have any impact on the Olympic Games.
The president of WADA even admitted that his agency (and not only it) is dedicated to the politicization of sport.
– At the last Olympic summit held by the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, a clear position was expressed: the International Olympic Committee asked the national Olympic committees not to participate. [в Играх дружбы], the same call was made to international sports federations. So what we can do is contact them again and encourage them to avoid participating. We can express our concerns, we can make a statement. I’m not sure if we can stop the Russians and force them not to hold these Games. It is rather, so to speak, a political question. – at the same time admitted defeat.
