Russians show defiance with ‘tank biathlon’
Accusations of hacking and doping are met with incredulity
AT-72 tank roared into the jump at full speed, launching several feet into the air. “Ooooohhhh!” several spectators yelled as it slammed back down so hard its gun barrel nearly hit the ground.
A second T-72 followed behind, but suddenly everyone’s attention was directed behind them as strong winds ripped the metal-and-tarpaulin roof off the grandstands. The spectators climbed over the barriers to escape as rain poured down.
This was the tank biathlon, a sport devised by Russia in 2013, ostensibly to allow its own tank forces and those of other countries to test their preparedness and equipment. But it also serves as a patriotic spectacle and a show of military might held with an eye on the West.
It’s part of the huge Army Games taking place across Russia and Kazakhstan, which also include competitions among jet fighters, airdefence systems, artillery and paratroopers. More than 3000 personnel are taking part from Russia and 18 friendly countries, such as Angola, Venezuela, Serbia and several former Soviet republics.
Dmitry Panin, a doctor who had come with his wife and a friend on a “patriotic impulse”, said the competition was a display of military prowess and a way to “unify the nation”. He added: “It’s to raise our country’s status, to show that we are a world power and will remain so.”
As the deafening reports of tank shots boomed across the field, Nikolai Kudryavtsev, who once served in a tank brigade himself, said: “It shows mastery — it shows who’s better prepared among these countries. Nato refused to come because they’re afraid.”
Russia has found itself at the centre of several scandals in recent weeks, provoking outrage abroad but defiance at home. First, sporting authorities suspended the Russian track and field team and almost banned the entire country from the Rio de Janeiro Olympics following findings of state-sponsored doping. Then US officials and experts suggested the Kremlin was most likely behind an email hack of the Democratic national committee. The Republican candidate, Donald Trump, has previously spoken of his admiration for the leadership qualities of the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, and intimated he would move to lift sanctions on Moscow.
An April YouGov poll found that the only G20 country where Trump was viewed more favourably than Democrat Hillary Clinton was Russia. Whereas Clinton is associated with the failed “reset” of relations with Russia in 2009 and the Nato bombing in Libya, Trump is seen as a break in these tensions, say pollsters.
The hacking scandal has not been covered widely in the Russian media, which is dominated by state television channels, but when told about the email hacking suspicions Kudryavtsev called them “nonsense”. According to Valery Fyodorov, head of VTsIOM, Russians instinctively distrust the West after the booms in poverty and crime during the USstyle market reforms of the 1990s, as well as the Nato bombing of Russian ally Serbia in 1999. Western criticism can even be taken as proof of Russia taking the proper course, he said.
Responding to the doping scandal, Putin promised reforms but also rejected the accusations as “interference of politics in sport” and the track team ban as “open discrimination”. The Sports Minister, Vitaly Mutko, has repeatedly argued that Russia is being singled out for what is a worldwide problem. The Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, said he could not respond to the email hack suspicions without using four-letter words.
As their officials lashed out on television at the West for its alleged prejudices and attacks on the country, many Russians expressed similar opinions. In a survey published by state pollster VTsIOM, 55 per cent said the accusations of mass doping were groundless and the result of a “political hit job” by Russia’s Olympic competitors. Another 31 per cent said doping existed in other countries and punishing only Russia was an “injustice”.
A whopping 89 per cent supported the actions of Putin, who has dismissed officials named in World AntiDoping Agency investigations but said further evidence must be presented to back the accusations.
“Of course, it’s politics,” said Grigory Klimov, a former athletics coach, when asked about the doping scandal. He was in the stands at Stars 2016, a track meet for Russia’s banned athletes, which the media dubbed an alternative Olympics. “Sanctions aren’t working. We are surviving and even flourishing. So how can they get us? Take away the Olympics from us!”