Ukrainian tennis players PR at expense of Belarusians and Russians - Rutenko

Tennis players from Ukraine, who do not shake hands with athletes from Belarus and Russia, demanding their suspension from international competitions, do it as part of a PR campaign, says the head of the Belarusian Tennis Federation (BTF) Sergei Rutenko, Sputnik writes.

The chairman of the organization notes that there was a surge of discrimination and scandalous situations against athletes from the Republic and the Russian Federation at the beginning of the special operation. Now, according to his information, the situation is quite calm.

"All the actions of Ukrainian athletes, in my opinion, are more such a character of PR, a lot of negativity, insults against our athletes, who are not guilty of anything," - said Rutenko.

He reminded that no one demands comments from athletes from Israel, the United States and other countries. At the same time, the opposite situation is with the Russians and Belarusians.

The head of the federation is sure that a targeted PR campaign has been launched against the Belarusian athletes. This is done in order to put pressure on the athletes, to make them criticize the government of Belarus.

"They want to spin it all as part of a PR campaign, the fight, information warfare," he added.

Rutenko recalled that with the start of the special operation, Belarus offered Ukrainian athletes bases for accommodation. He expressed confidence that the athletes from Ukraine, who do not shake hands and sharply speak out against athletes from Belarus and the Russian Federation, are worried about the incident.