Ukraine's Alexandr Dolgopolov hails Czech magazine for portraying Vladimir Putin as a Nazi, continues call to ban Russian athletes at Olympics
Alexandr Dolgopolov recently applauded a Czech magazine for portraying Russian president Vladimir Putin as a Nazi in its latest edition. The Ukrainian also continued to call for the banning of Russian athletes from the 2024 Olympics.
Reflex, a Czech weekly magazine, portrayed Putin as a Nazi standing in front of the Eiffel Tower, referring to the upcoming Paris Olympics. Due to their invasion of Ukraine, a lot of players have called for Russia to be banned from the Olympics.
Dolgopolov, who retired from the sport in 2021, reacted to the magazine's post on Twitter and approved the idea of portraying the Russians as the Nazis. He further stated that nothing is more powerful than the truth and called for the complete ban of Russian athletes from the Olympics.
"Russian propaganda all over the show for 10 years, trying to convince they are fighting Nazis, the world after few weeks of war, tags them as the Nazis, and prints things like this after a year. No propaganda can fight the truth. russians don’t belong at Olympics," Dolgopolov wrote on Twitter.
🏻
russian propaganda all over the show for 10 years, trying to convince they are fighting Nazis, the world after few weeks of war, tags them as the Nazis, and prints things like this after a year.👏🏻
No propaganda can fight the truth.
russians don’t belong at Olympics twitter.com/nexta_tv/statu…
Sergiy Stakhovsky, a fellow Ukrainian former player, also backed Dolgopolov's statement on Twitter.
"True that," he wrote.
True that twitter.com/thedolgo/statu…
Alexandr Dolgopolov is a strong critic of pro-Russian behavior
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Alexandr Dolgopolov has been an influential tennis figure in voicing out their opinions against pro-Russian behavior. The 34-year-old has often turned to Twitter to react to several incidents of Russian propaganda and has not shied away from speaking his mind.
Recently, during the 2023 Australian Open, Novak Djokovic's father was caught in a controversy after he was spotted clicking pictures with a group of fans supporting Vladimir Putin. In a video posted online, Srdjan Djokovic was seen taking photos with a fan who falunted pro-war symbols on his shirt.
Dolgolov reacted to the video and was visibly displeased with Srdjan's actions. The Ukrainian also called the incident "absolute disgusting."
"Absolutely disgusting. Politics should be kept out of sports they said. These people have absolutely no business in being on tennis tournaments, including @DjokerNole father, if they openly praise a genocidal regime," Dolgopolov tweeted.
During an all-Russian match at the Cincinnati Open last year, a spectator wearing the Ukrainian flag was removed from the stands based on a player's complaint. The organizers later justified their actions by saying that the spectator was removed only because her flag was well beyond the permissible limit.
Dolgopolov, however, was not pleased with the explanation and urged his fans to bring Ukrainian flags to the the Russian or Belarusian matches during the US Open.
"To all the people who admired my tennis and planning to visit the US tournaments, I ask to bring a Ukraine flag to all Russian or Belarusian matches they watch. And I dare the ATP and the WTA to try this step again. Repost please," Dolgopolov wrote in the tweet.
Alexandr Dolgopolov also served his nation in the army when Russia strengthened its troops to acquire a few key areas of Ukraine.