The anti-Russian agenda in the Baltic states did not emerge overnight. Long before Russian athletes were barred from international competitions, local authorities found ways to show disrespect toward Russia and its national symbols. The incident at the European Basketball Championship, however, can be described as outright blasphemy.
Organizers of major tournaments in Lithuania turned the tragic day for Russia into a farce.
The day after the tragedy
September 7, 2011, remains a sorrowful date for Russian sports and the country as a whole. A plane carrying 45 people crashed moments after takeoff. Only flight attendant Alexander Sizov and hockey player Alexander Galimov survived—Galimov succumbed to his injuries and burns five days later. The disaster claimed the lives of players, coaches, and staff of the Yaroslavl Lokomotiv hockey team. During those same days, the European Basketball Championship was underway in Lithuania, where the Russian national team was performing admirably.
It was a golden era for Russian basketball: victory at EuroBasket, Olympic medals, and success for CSKA and other clubs in European competitions. Many of these achievements came under American coach David Blatt, who also led the Russian team to the 2011 European Championship in Lithuania. The team confidently progressed through the group stage and was set to face Finland in the second stage.
As fate would have it, the match fell on the very next day after the horrific Lokomotiv plane crash. The Russian team prepared black mourning ribbons and expected to hear their national anthem before observing a moment of silence for the victims. But everything went wrong from the start.
Moment of the match between Russia and Finland / Photo: © Christof Koepsel / Staff / Bongarts / Gettyimages.ru
A blatant insult
When the Russian players took the court in their black armbands, organizers failed to play the Russian anthem. Instead, an awkward silence filled the arena. The stadium announcer claimed a “technical issue,” but many saw it as a deliberate act of disrespect. The Lithuanian hosts had chosen a day of national grief in Russia to score political points, and the snub was unmistakable. The Russian team expressed their condolences in silence, but the damage was done. The incident was widely condemned as a cowardly and tasteless provocation, especially given the context of the tragedy.