"They are threatened": Russian Olympic champion says people in the West are "too afraid to talk out loud'

Mikhail Mamiashvili, President of the Russian Wrestling Federation, complained about the alleged politicization of world sport and the collapse of the Olympic movement. The Seoul 88 champion also repeated traditional Russian propaganda narratives about the lack of freedom and democracy in the West.

Mamiashvili said this on the air of the Match TV propaganda TV channel. The former Greco-Roman fighter called Europeans intimidated people who are "afraid to talk and express their position." However, that sounds more like the complete suppression of human rights in Russia.

"I think there are many components. We are moving by leaps and bounds towards the destruction of the international Olympic movement. The unprecedented pressure on Russians and Belarusians is incomprehensible to the vast majority of people who live for sports. We have been convinced that there is a democratic world and we live behind a curtain for so long we believed it. As it turned out, this enlightened West is under such pressure that they are afraid to speak out and express their position. People are afraid, they are threatened," Mamiashvili said.

Earlier, he reacted angrily to Ukraine's possible boycott of the Paris Olympics, demanding "good neighborliness and friendship" from Ukrainians.

As OBOZ.UA previously reported, former speed skater and State Duma deputy Svetlana Zhurova complained about Ukrainians, whom everyone is allegedly tired of because of our country's possible boycott of the 2024 Olympics. And Veronika Stepanova, an Olympic champion with the "intelligence of a washing machine", called on Russians to organize provocations at the Games.

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