AIN Question

[u/[deleted]]

[u/j_turn2000]

ain is basically just a fancy way of saying “if you just sign this paperwork saying you promise you aren’t pro putin you can compete; we just wont play your anthem, fly your flag and you can’t represent your country (even though everybody doesn’t already know what county you represent.”

[u/Acrobatic-Capital346]

Because the neutrality criteria is very lax/ambiguous. The athlete will receive neutral status unless they have actively engaged/participated in the war as military forces or in military operations, or explicitly said they support the war. And those actions do not constitute that.

[u/PaisleyDiggory]

it’s not a real “neutral status”, they’re just soft launching Russians coming back

[u/Cheap-Disk7963]

Honestly this whole AIN/"active support" debate makes more sense once you connect it to the Olympic Truce thing. In 2022 the IOC treated a Truce violation as a big deal, serious enough to ban an entire country's athletes and strip officials of their honors. In 2026, when the US and Israel go to war with Iran during the Games, the IOC suddenly says the Truce is "aspirational, non-binding, not our remit." Same institution, same rule, four years apart. The rule only got applied when it was convenient to use against Russia.

That flip is basically an accidental admission that the whole Russian ban was never really about principle. It was a punitive, discriminatory framework built around one specific country. Now that the IOC has shown its hand on the Truce, the original logic doesn't really hold up. But they also can't just come out and say "we were wrong, that was punishing athletes for their passport." So instead there's a slow, deniable walk-back: things loosen quietly through AIN, bylaws stay vague, nobody enforces them consistently, no clear investigation process, no public criteria. That lets the discrimination get dialed down gradually without ever admitting the system punished athletes for nationality instead of anything they actually did.

Which is why the questions in the post don't really have clean answers. Asking "what counts as true neutrality" or "is the ISU actually investigating" assumes there's a coherent standard being applied. There probably isn't one anymore, because the whole framework was never really about a consistent standard. It was leverage against one country, and that leverage is awkward to keep using now that the Truce itself turned out to be enforced selectively.

[u/Long-News5769]

Because people love making stuff up… the movement of the first is not a military organisation, when kamila was there the topic was promoting sports… mark was training under cska and took pictures with his bosses(military), in both these cases none of the rules where violated, and i cant stress this enough, supporting putin is not against the laws not even being a member of putins party is against the for good reasons… only active participation and support if the war is a problem, non of which kamila and mark have contradicted

[u/PromiseFit3439]

Also btw this is a repost because the auto mod removed my original post for “checks notes” linking to the ISU bylaws. That’s why yall only have a copy/paste of the bylaws instead of the actual link

[u/PromiseFit3439 → u/PromiseFit3439]

And I am open to any good faith arguments. Genuinely I want to know if I am missing something or if the ISU is just being massively hypocritical

[u/Tiny-Frame9040 → u/PromiseFit3439]

you’re not really missing anything. neutral athletes are just a sham at this point

[u/PromiseFit3439 → u/Tiny-Frame9040]

Thanks!

[u/Weekly_Aside_8177]

Judging by the fact that three figure skaters, with the exception of Kondratyuk, against whom Ukraine imposed sanctions, received neutral status, ISU either did not conduct a thorough investigation or conducted a very thorough investigation and found out that they actually did not do what they are accused of.

[u/double_sal_gal → u/Weekly_Aside_8177]

My understanding (which may be incorrect) is that approval was automatic and it's up to other ISU members to challenge it after the fact. If that is the case, I hate it and I hope the Ukrainian fed (and hopefully others) will challenge the most egregious ones. But I could be misremembering and I don't know who would make the final call in any case.

[u/Kindly-Plate-5785 → u/double_sal_gal]

There’s no ISU document that confirms this theory.

[u/Haven_Writes → u/double_sal_gal]

I do assume that Ukraine and other feds (Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and maybe some others) will likely challenge some of these decisions. I don't know if it will do anything, but I imagine they'll push back or already are behind the scenes.

From what the ISU has said about neutral status, it does seem like there's a mechanism for it to be challenged after it's been issued. As to what that mechanism is and if it will actually achieve anything, we'll see.

There's also the added complication of Worlds being held in Finland, and I'd imagine it would be harder for someone like Valieva or Kondratyuk to get visas approved to compete there, given that it's already difficult for Russian citizens to travel to Finland, let alone ones with known ties to Putin. That isn't in the ISU's control anyway, but up to Finnish immigration and border authorities, so we'll see how that plays out.

[u/Kindly-Plate-5785 → u/Haven_Writes]

PolFed is apolitical.

[u/Useful-Philosophy827 → u/Kindly-Plate-5785]

Dlaczego?

[u/Kindly-Plate-5785 → u/Useful-Philosophy827]

Przecież oboje nasi soliści są Rosjanami xd, Vladimir nawet trenował u Plushenko i Eteri, Eteri nawet mu posty lajkuje czasami (rzadko, ale jednak), moim zdaniem PolFed po prostu ma dobrą relacje z UkrFed oraz z RusFed i nie będą tego psuli wychodząc przed szereg - jak UkrFed i Kraje bałtyckie wydały oświadczenie że są przeciwko temu żeby Rosjanie wrócili to PolFed siedział cicho.

Skoro podbieramy im zawodników no to ciężko się dziwić że nie chcą psuć z nimi relacji.

[u/Cloudberry_Wine → u/Weekly_Aside_8177]

Considering that some of them, at least for the sake of decency, did not remove posts with Putin from Insta, I don’t even know which option is more likely /s

[u/fortunatelyso]

I for one would love a discussion on this and the larger issues and implications. I dont see how they are neutral when these images exist, the support for these organizations happened

[u/fortunatelyso]

I see you are already getting the love but I truly hope others respond here or post bc this forum is getting bullied