Budapest
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has temporarily lost his most senior official position in world sports.
The International Judo Federation on Sunday cited the ongoing war conflict in Ukraine for suspending Putin’s honorary president status.
The Russian president is a keen judoka and attended the sport at the 2012 London Olympics.
The judo federation is rare among Olympic sports bodies for using the word war to describe Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ordered by Putin since Thursday. Others have used phrases such as escalation of conflict.
A Kremlin-supporting oligarch and longtime friend of Putin, Arkady Rotenberg, remains on the IJF executive committee as development manager.
