"Putin's close friend Bubka" gave up the fight for the post of vice president of the International Organization because of criticism

The 1988 Olympic champion in pole vault and ten-time world champion Serhiy Bubka did not run for the World Athletics Congress and left the post of vice-president of the World Athletics Association (World Athletics) after more than 20 years of activity in the organization.

The Ukrainian official was appointed senior vice president of World Athletics in 2019 and was considered to succeed Briton Sebastian Coe. Today, Olympic 1500m champion Coe became the organization's president for a final term and is set to run for the International Olympic Committee's head in 2025 and oust German Thomas Bach.

According to the popular resource Inside the Games, Bubka's decision not to run again was made after a wave of criticism in Ukraine. Being the president of the NOC, the legendary track and field athlete never condemned Russia's invasion of his country in February 2022.

It should be noted that the Ukrainian competed for the post of head of the International Association of Athletics Federations with Coe in 2015 but lost to him, receiving 92 votes against 115 for the Briton.

"Bubka, a close friend of Russian President Vladimir Putin, stepped down as president of Ukraine's National Olympic Committee last October after 17 years in the position," a journalist from Inside the Games wrote in a piece titled "Bubka ends 22 years at World Athletics after criticizing ties to Russia."

BIHUS Info July's investigation confirmed that Montblanc, which belongs to Serhiy Bubka, operates in the temporarily occupied territories and cooperates with terrorists.

The firm was established in Donetsk, participated in Ukrainian tenders and annually won contracts to supply fuel and food worth millions of hryvnias. The firm changed its legal address to Volnovakha after the occupation of Donetsk in 2014 and continued to participate in Ukrainian tenders.

Serghiy Bubka and his brother Vasyl, who own the company, appeared in the Russian register of legal entities at the beginning of 2023. The company signed official contracts with the occupants for the supply of fuel for more than 800 thousand rubles only in May. This was not the last deal.

Earlier OBOZREVATEL tried to understand why Bubka, who could not even say the word "war", didn't condemn Russia and stays silent.

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