Vladimir Putin removed from all positions in the International Judo Federation

Billionaire businsessman Arkady Rotenberg had been on the IJF executive committee as a development manager since 2013.

The federation did not mention Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but it said on February 27 it was suspending Putin as honorary IJF president “in light of the ongoing war conflict in Ukraine”.

Putin was also stripped of his honorary taekwondo black belt conferred in 2013 by World Taekwondo and a FINA Order, awarded to him in 2014 by swimming’s global body.

Since the beginning of what Putin has called “a special military operation” in Ukraine, Russian and Belarusian teams and athletes have found themselves frozen out from international competitions across sports. Belarus has been a key staging area for Russia’s invasion of its neighbour.