By Olha Hembik | 2026-04-08

Vladimir Semirunniy escaped military conscription by taking a bus from Yekaterinburg to Poland through the Kaliningrad region. Eighteen months later, he stood on an Olympic podium in Milan -- not for Russia, but for his new country.

His journey, from Russian speed skater to Polish silver medalist, is one of dozens playing out across international winter sports. At the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and Cortina d'Ampezzo (February 6–22), at least 37 Russians competed under foreign flags, according to data published by Sport-Express. Since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, at least 350 athletes have left the country, according to Novaya Gazeta Europe. An additional 13 Russian and seven Belarusian athletes competed under neutral status at the Games, stripped of their flag and anthem as a direct consequence of the war.

In Russia, they are called traitors.

Fleeing the draft, chasing the medal

Semirunniy, 23, had been drafted into the Russian army. To avoid service, he reached out to contacts in Poland and, with help from Konrad Niedźwiedzki, head of the country's Olympic Mission, secured a place to live and train. The Russian Speed Skating Federation (RSSF) delayed the citizenship transition, prompting Warsaw to appeal directly to the international federation to speed the process.

After completing a two-year competitive quarantine, Semirunniy won silver and bronze at the World Championships, gold and silver at the European Championships, and then silver at the 2026 Olympics in the 10,000-meter (6.2-mile) race.

He passed a security screening by Polish intelligence to verify he had no ties to Russian state institutions or the military. His family remains in Russia, which may explain why, when asked about the war in Ukraine, he does not answer.

"I wasn't born here, but I've been living in Poland for three years, training with a Polish team and coach. I already have a Polish mentality and a Polish girlfriend. I feel at home here," Semirunniy said in broken Polish. He plans to change his surname to Semirunni, saying it will "sound good in Polish."

'Represented an aggressor state'

Not everyone in Poland welcomed him as a hero. Natalya Panchenko, leader of the Ukrainian diaspora in Poland and head of the Euromaidan-Warsaw initiative, noted that Semirunniy had competed under the Russian flag after the start of the full-scale invasion and in 2019 illegally crossed the Ukrainian border to visit occupied Crimea.

"There is no point in pretending this didn't happen," she told Kontur. In just twelve months, she said, Semirunniy traveled "the path from a representative of the aggressor state to a Polish medalist."

"Meanwhile, Ukrainian athletes are dying because of Russian aggression," Panchenko said.

Panchenko's remarks reflect a broader tension surrounding the wave of Russian sports migration. In Milan, five Russians competed for Georgia in figure skating; four each for Kazakhstan, Poland, and Moldova across figure skating, speed skating, biathlon, and skiing; and two each for Armenia, Azerbaijan, Hungary, Romania, and France. Figure skating accounted for the largest share overall, with 18 athletes of Russian background competing under foreign flags.

Denys Sizonenko, a member of Ukraine's swimming team at the 2004 Athens Olympics, said the calculation for athletes without contracts is not hard to understand.

"A sporting life is short; in some disciplines, you only have four or five years to achieve peak results," he told Kontur. "What is the point of practicing a sport if you have no opportunity to achieve results?"

Moscow wants compensation. And bans.

Russia's response has been punitive -- and, in at least one case, already enforced. The Russian sports portal Sport24 branded as traitors speed skaters Vladimir Semirunniy, Elizaveta Golubeva, and Kristina Silaeva, as well as short-track skater Daniil Eyboga, writing that the athletes "don't give a damn about the country" and that some "fled to enemy states" -- a reference to Poland.

Mikhail Degtyarev, Russia's Minister of Sport and Chairman of the Olympic Committee (ROC), said athletes who change sporting citizenship should repay the government for their training, which he put at between 260,000 and 1.5 million RUB ($2,900–$16,900) annually per athlete. He went further on state television during the Games: "We want to deprive them of everything, ban them from coming to the country and using our sports facilities."

He confirmed a concrete precedent had already been set: a chess player was stripped of their grandmaster title for switching sporting citizenship. "Regulations have been introduced now, I signed an order to that effect," he said.

The rhetoric, however, has not been consistent. When Russian neutral athlete Nikita Filippov won a silver medal in ski mountaineering -- the first medal for an Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) at these Games -- Degtyarev publicly congratulated him, despite his calls to punish those who compete outside Russia's colors.

The contrast with Ukraine has not gone unnoticed.

Skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the 2026 Olympics after competing in a "memorial helmet" bearing images of athletes killed by Russian aggression. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded him the country's Order of Freedom.

"Russian athletes are abandoning their country and flag just to compete in the Olympics. Meanwhile, Ukrainian athletes are willing to walk away from the Games to honor their fallen countrymen and stand by their nation," cultural activist Natalya Pavlenko told Kontur. "This is where our difference and our strength lie."

The crackdown is unfolding as Russia simultaneously lobbies for full Olympic reinstatement. Russia competed at the 2026 Winter Paralympics with its flag and anthem permitted for the first time since 2014.

Degtyarev has said he expects the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to decide on restoring Russia's full status by April or May -- and has threatened to go to court if it does not. For the athletes Russia is calling traitors, the window to compete under a foreign flag may be narrowing faster than expected.