A Gazprom-backed tennis tournament starting Friday in Russia with multiple top European pros taking part has triggered outrage in Ukraine.
Stars Roberto Bautista Agut from Spain, Adrian Mannarino from France and Laslo Djere from Serbia will join a number of elite Russian players at the Northern Palmyra Trophies exhibition competition sponsored by the Russian energy giant in St. Petersburg this weekend.
Top Ukrainian player Lesia Tsurenko told POLITICO she had tried pleading with the European athletes not to take part. For Ukraine, Gazprom sponsorship of the event equals stepping onto the court with Russian President Vladimir Putin himself.
“I tried to explain to them what they would be involved in,” Tsurenko said, adding that she had implored players from France, Italy and Bulgaria not to appear at the Gazprom exhibition. “Last year, I managed to convince one player not to go to this shameful tournament.”
Participants from the men’s and women’s Top 100 also include Russians Karen Khachanov and Veronika Kudermetova, both of whom were linked by a POLITICO investigation in July to Putin’s war machine, plus Anastasia Potapova, Dušan Lajović, Diana Shnaider, Alexander Shevchenko and Yulia Putintseva.
“Tennis tours block any information about the war and do not explain to players that they will be advertising a sponsor of terrorism, their names will be used for propaganda, and participating in events sponsored by sanctioned companies is not acceptable,” Tsurenko added. “It will damage the image of the player, their country, and the tour. It’s not difficult to distinguish between good and bad.”
While Italy’s Jasmine Paolini responded positively to Tsurenko’s overtures and pulled out of the tournament, Bautista Agut, Mannarino and Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova left her messages unanswered.
Gazprom is majority-owned by the Russian government and, as the country’s largest energy conglomerate, last year paid more than $55 billion into the state’s coffers through taxes. The St. Petersburg-based firm’s leadership, which has close ties to the Kremlin, has previously indicated it is prepared to contribute more to the national budget in order to help meet the rising costs of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
According to multiple investigations, Gazprom also funds and organizes a mercenary group comprised of its own security personnel fighting on the front lines, with Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko previously telling POLITICO that the oil and gas empire is therefore “an accomplice to war crimes in Ukraine” which should be shut out of world markets entirely.
Alexey Miller, the head of Gazprom since 2001, called on his employees to support Putin at the beginning of the invasion and attends various events sporting Russia’s “Z” war emblem.
The ATP and WTA, which run men’s and women’s tennis respectively, have washed their hands of the Russian tournament. “Players compete on the WTA Tour as independent contractors and, at their discretion, have the ability to participate in an exhibition without penalty during the off-season,” the WTA told Reuters on Monday. The ATP echoed that position.
Before the start of Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Gazprom had a deep footprint in European sport, including as lead sponsor of UEFA’s flagship Champions League football competition.
