{"id":1381,"date":"2023-01-17T10:16:40","date_gmt":"2023-01-17T11:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/?p=1381"},"modified":"2025-06-20T11:03:02","modified_gmt":"2025-06-20T11:03:02","slug":"moscow-responds-to-australian-open-flag-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/17\/moscow-responds-to-australian-open-flag-ban\/","title":{"rendered":"Moscow responds to Australian Open flag ban"},"content":{"rendered":"

Organizers of the major sporting event have banned the Russian and Belarusian flags from being displayed by fans in Melbourne<\/strong><\/p>\n

The decision by organizers of the ongoing Australian Open to ban the display of Russian and Belarusian flags by fans has been described as an \u201cunacceptable politicization of sports<\/em>\u201d by Russia\u2019s embassy in Canberra.<\/p>\n

A statement from Tennis Australia on Tuesday said the decision was made following what was described as a \u201ccourtside incident<\/em>\u201d which occurred during the first round match between Ukraine\u2019s Kateryna Baindl and Russia\u2019s Kamilla Rakhimova on Monday, during which some supporters displayed the Russian tricolor and vocally supported the Russian player.<\/p>\n

Supporters of Baindl, though, said Russian fans had been \u201ctaunting<\/em>\u201d the Ukrainian player and called for security staff to assess the situation. The Russian flag was subsequently removed but no further action was taken.<\/p>\n

The scenes drew the condemnation of Ukrainian women\u2019s player Marta Kostyuk as well as the Ukrainian ambassador to Australia, Vasily Myroshnychenko, who called upon Tennis Australia to impose a \u201cneutral flag<\/em>\u201d policy, and said he \u201cstrongly condemned<\/em>\u201d the display of Russian colors at the event.<\/p>\n

\n

\u2757\ufe0fThe decision to ban \ud83c\uddf7\ud83c\uddfaRussian and \ud83c\udde7\ud83c\uddfeBelorussian flags from appearing onsite at the @AustralianOpen<\/a> is another example of unacceptable politicisation of sports\ud83d\udd17https:\/\/t.co\/pno9ALImJE<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/wVpY9OCMZF<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Russia in Australia (@RusEmbAU) January 17, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In response, Russia\u2019s embassy in Australia issued a statement online in which it heavily criticized the decision to impose a ban on the display of the country\u2019s tricolor throughout the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision to ban Russian and Belarusian flags from appearing onsite at the Australian Open is another example of the unacceptable politicization of sports<\/em>,\u201d it wrote in a statement distributed on social media.<\/p>\n

It added<\/a>:\u00a0\u201cOn top of already discriminating against Russian tennis players with its \u2018neutral flag policy\u2019 Tennis Australia now went further by making sure they cannot be visibly supported by their fans.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cQuite ironically, Tennis Australia pledges to \u2018continue to work… to ensure the best possible environment to enjoy the tennis.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is indeed regrettable to see the tournament organizers give in to overt and rather arrogant political manipulation sacrificing the spirit of fair play once inherent to the Australian Open<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Players from both Russia and Belarus, such as Daniil Medvedev and Aryna Sabalenka, are permitted to compete at the Grand Slam event but they must do so without the formal display of any national symbols, following sanctions introduced by the sport\u2019s governing bodies following the onset of the conflict in Ukraine last year.<\/p>\n

\n Read more<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\n \"A
Major sports event bans Russian flag after Ukrainian complaints<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In advance of the event, the Ukrainian ambassador called on Tennis Australia to ban players from Russia and Belarus entirely in a similar manner to measures imposed at Wimbledon last summer, but the request was rejected by Australian tennis authorities \u2013 allowing the likes of Medvedev, Sabalenka and Andrey Rublev to compete at the event.<\/p>\n

It was reported that a Russian flag was subsequently removed from the stands during fifth-seed Rublev\u2019s opening round win against Dominic Thiem on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Organizers of the major sporting event have banned the Russian and Belarusian flags from being displayed by fans in Melbourne […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1381","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1381"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1385,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1381\/revisions\/1385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marinemalawi.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}