The Russian authorities have been using sports as a propaganda tool since Soviet times. Famous athletes and coaches publicly express their support for Russia's armed aggression against Ukraine, and also speak at propaganda events of the Putin regime. The Ukrainian sports portal Trybuna, with the help of fans, has created and regularly updates the List of Shame - a database of Russian and Belarusian current and former athletes and coaches, as well as sports functionaries and officials who publicly supported Putin's aggression. Putin's pro-government United Russia party has been using popular ex-athletes as a mouthpiece for propaganda for decades. Some of them became deputies of the State Duma of Russia from the ruling party and found their place in the system of Russian power. Nine former athletes supported Russian aggression against Ukraine. Among them are boxers Mykolai Valuiev and Dmytro Pyroh, biathletes Anton Shypulin and Serhii Chepikov, hockey player Viacheslav Fetisov, chess player Anatolii Karpov, wrestler Artur Taimazov, figure skater Iryna Rodnina and speed skater Svitlana Zhurova. Active members of the sport also took part in Putin's propaganda activities after the start of the full-scale war and supported the aggression against Ukraine. The most famous are figure skaters Arina and Dina Averina, Aliona Kostorna, Kamila Valieva, Yelizaveta Tuktamysheva, skiers Oleksandr Bolshunov, Oleksandr Lehkov and Veronika Stepanova, wrestler Roman Vlasov, football players Artem Dziuba and Ari, mixed martial arts fightersOleksandr Yemelianenko, Oleksandr Shlemenko, Petro Yan. Russian gymnast Ivan Kulyiak went further and in March 2022 entered the World Cup stage awards with the letter “Z” on his suit, the main symbol of Russian aggression against Ukraine for which he was disqualified for a year.

Unfortunately, this list was not without traitors: some former Ukrainians have long supported the Putin regime and an aggressive war against their own country. Here we can distinguish chess player Serhii Kariakin, MMA fighter Oleksii Oliynyk and ex-volleyball player Taras Khtei. After the start of a full-scale war, most international sports institutions (not controlled by the Russians themselves) either completely banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in competitions, or set conditions for them to compete in a neutral status: without flags, anthems, and subject to public condemnation of aggression against Ukraine. Russian propaganda, of course, began to shout about “double standards”, “politicization of sports” and “russophobia”. Even the Russian Foreign Ministry distinguished itself by this.