After making the scandalous decision, Zantaraya announced that he would give up all his titles and the title of world champion if Russian judokas were allowed to participate in international tournaments..

On the air of the " According to him, Russia, under sanctions pressure, is trying to enter the world stage through athletes.

" While we are at war, while the whole world is helping us, and all international companies have gone out of business in Russia, Russian sports are trying to enter the world stage through athletes.

I do not want to be involved in this federation, which I advocated, which I popularized, until they support such decisions.. In my opinion, the International Judo Federation is very dependent on Russian sponsors. One of the largest sponsors is Russian companies. The President of Russia was the honorary president of the Judo Federation, he practiced judo. But such actions are not committed by judoists.. The principle of judo is respect, honor, courage. What they are doing is unacceptable for the principles of judo.

Sports standards today are some kind of bilateral. If sport is a fair game, and Russia throws bombs, kills people, and our athletes cannot fully engage, this is not a sport and a fair game. And this is at a time when Russian athletes have full-fledged training,"

Recall, the International Judo Federation allowed Russians and Belarusians to participate in the Grand Slam tournaments in a neutral status. In response to this, the Judo Federation of Ukraine announced its readiness to boycott all starts under the auspices of the IJF, including Olympic qualification tournaments (starts in the summer of 2022).

The next Grand Slam judo tournament will be held June 24-26 in Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia).

Georgiy Zantaraya - the first world champion in judo in the history of Ukraine. He also won gold twice at the European Championships and once finished second..