Olympic controversy at the UN Security Council chills Algeria-Russia relations
The gender of the athlete Imam Khalif was used as a weapon by Russia against France, which outraged Algeria's representative
The controversy surrounding the women's boxing competition at the Paris Olympics has spilled over to the United Nations Security Council and threatens to tarnish the "historic" diplomatic relations between Algeria and one of its allies, Russia.
These relations appear to be cooling in recent weeks, due to the conflicting interests of the two countries in the Sahel region.
The Khalif case
What no one expected was that the controversy would arise against the backdrop of sport, an issue that Russia took advantage of to take its toll on France as organiser of the 2024 Olympics and, by extension, on the West.
It all began when Russia's deputy representative to the UN Security Council, Dmitry Polyansky, criticised the Western world and especially France, the organiser of the Olympic Games, for what he considered to be "a lack of respect for women and a manipulation of Olympic values".
Polyansky also lashed out at the International Olympic Committee, whose actions he described as "disgusting", and denounced the "fraud" of the presence of boxers such as Imam Khalif and Taiwan's Lin Yu-Ting, both with male chromosomes, in the women's competition, where they have been winning their bouts overwhelmingly against rival boxers.
In his speech, the Russian representative accused Western countries of monopolising the Olympic movement and imposing the LGBT agenda "aggressively": "At the Olympic Games in Paris, female boxers are exposed to violence in public by athletes who did not pass the hormone tests conducted by the International Boxing Federation and, according to logic, are men. This is absolutely disgusting".
Russia and the International Boxing Federation
The context for these accusations is to be found, on the one hand, in Russia's desire to take its toll on the West for the exclusion of its athletes due to the invasion of Ukraine, as well as Russian indignation at the values conveyed at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Another variable to be taken into account is also the Olympic Committee's neglect of the International Boxing Federation, chaired by Omar Krimlev, a figure close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
It should be remembered that the International Boxing Federation rejected the participation of Khalif and Yu-Ting in its competitions, as they had not passed the hormone tests to which both athletes were subjected. In fact, at last year's world championships in India, Khalif was eliminated in the final round, while Yu-Ting was stripped of the bronze medal.
Algeria's reaction
Predictably, the Russian representative's intervention provoked outrage from Tawfiq Koudari, Algeria's deputy representative to the UN Security Council, who repeatedly asked for the floor to express his astonishment at the Russian spokesman's mixing of sport and politics.
According to Koudari, "the Algerian athlete was born a woman, raised as a woman and advanced in sports to the international rankings as a woman, and no one can doubt that. Algeria rejects the campaign of intimidation and slander launched by her opponents, from the International Boxing Federation to the political, media and financial elites. There is no doubt about it, except for those with a certain political agenda.
This altercation at the UN Security Council for what could be described as an anecdotal reason highlights the progressive deterioration of diplomatic relations between Russia and Algeria, which began in the 50s of the last century and had been in good shape until now.
Experts point to the existence of silent differences between the two countries, caused by their different military and arms interests in the Sahel, which have been transferred to other areas such as, in this case, sport. Algeria has denounced the change in Russia's rhetoric, which seems willing to sacrifice its relations with Algeria in order to attack Western Europe.