Foreign sports stars flee Russia as world shuns their teams
Less than a year ago, Russia’s domestic sports leagues, like their peers across Europe, flourished with a mix of foreign and domestic players.
What a difference a war makes.
Today, amid deepening Cold War-like tensions between the Kremlin and the West, and as WNBA star Brittney Griner faces a 9-year sentence in a Russian penal colony, Russian basketball, hockey, and soccer teams are finding themselves forced out of international competition. And many of the one-time “legionnaires” – foreign players – on whom they depend are dropping their contracts and leaving the country.
The alienation of Russian athletes from global sports has been an ongoing saga for years, since largely forced official Russia from scheduled competitions.
