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The Olympic Movement has been roiled by politics for decades and the tumult today is just as chaotic, especially with regard to Russia.

The current turmoil in ice hockey, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled on 30 October that Russian teams must be admitted – in some form – to International Ice Hockey Federation tournaments in some form, has national governments promising not to allow Russian athletes to enter their countries and federation stating they will boycott any match against a Russian team.

The situation with the International Shooting Sport Federation has been going on for a lot longer, since 2018, when Russian billionaire Vladimir Lisin was elected ISSF President by 148-144 over Italian Luciano Rossi. The ISSF elected Russian-born Alexander Ratner (GER) as Secretary General.

Ratner was elected as the head of the European Shooting Confederation in 2021 and he was re-elected in 2025, in a controversial procedure in which he was accused of violating ISSF ethics regulations. So:

“[T]he independent Adjudicatory Panel of the ISSF Integrity Unit has imposed a three-year period of ineligibility and a fine of €30,000 on Alexander Ratner, a member of the ISSF Council and Executive Committee, in connection with the ESC presidential elections held in Yerevan [ARM] on 24–25 October 2025.

“The sanctions follow the Panel’s findings that Mr Ratner breached Articles 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.6, 4.1(c), 4.3, 7.3 and 8.1(b) and (c) of the ISSF Integrity Code. The violations concerned improper influence over the electoral process and gender-based discriminatory statements made during the election period as well as undue concealment of the recordings of the election process during the subsequent investigation.”

It was reported by Karoliina Nissinen (FIN), running against Ratner to be the ESC President, that Lisin was in the room just prior to the vote and that Ratner promised new funding of more than €23 million for the European federations, to be provided by Lisin.

● Rossi had defeated Lisin to become ISSF President in 2022 by 136-127 and is up for re-election this year at the ISSF Congress on Rome (ITA) on 13-14 December. Ratner is one of three other candidates to be ISSF President, but his status was in doubt after the ISSF Integrity Unit’s sanctions against him.

● On 12 November, the European Shooting Confederation “Presidium” issued a statement condemning the sanctions against Ratner, including:

“The ESC Presidium stands firmly behind its democratically elected President and will not remain silent in the face of actions that threaten the autonomy of the Confederation and the democratic decisions of its Member Federations.

“The Presidium has therefore decided to support Mr Ratner’s appeal before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Given the direct impact of the decision on the Confederation itself, the ESC will also pursue its own appeal before CAS.”

● On 13 November, the ISSF issued another statement, ending Ratner’s candidacy:

“The International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) confirms that Alexander Ratner is no longer eligible to stand as a candidate in the ISSF Presidential election scheduled for 14 December 2026 in Rome.

“On 6 November 2026, Mr Ratner was notified of a decision rendered by the Adjudicatory Panel of the independent ISSF Integrity Unit in Case AB 1/2026, imposing a three-year period of ineligibility under the ISSF Integrity Code.

“Under Articles 24.8(c) and 23.5 of the Code, this decision is immediately enforceable and prevents Mr Ratner from holding or standing for any position as an ISSF Official during the period of ineligibility.

“Accordingly, the ISSF Electoral and Nomination Commission (ENC), chaired by Margot Foster, has informed Mr Ratner that, as a direct consequence of this decision, he is no longer eligible to stand in the forthcoming Presidential election.”

There are still two other candidates against Rossi in the 2026 ISSF elections, from Bulgaria and Ukraine. But not Ratner.

In a guest editorial for The Sports Examiner, Nissinen explained that Ratner should essentially be seen as part of the larger Russian sports re-entry effort:

“Alexander Borisovich Ratner has long-standing connections within the Russian sports system. It is widely known in the sports community that he has served for more than three decades in Russian sports organizations and in the Russian Olympic Committee. That is why the ESC Secretariat remains based in the offices of the Russian Shooting Union in Moscow — and not in Lausanne, where the ESC is officially registered. …

“This appears to be part of a wider effort by Russian interests to regain influence over international sports federations — and to return to the Olympic Games through financial leverage rather than legitimate reform and participation.”

Ratner’s appeal will continue and it is unknown whether he or the European Shooting Confederation will be able to obtain a hearing and a decision with just a month remaining before the ISSF Congress.

But he will noisily try, just as equally furious comments from Russian officials in ice hockey are condemning efforts to keep them out of IIHF tournaments, as the Russian invasion of Ukraine continues. As Nissinen wrote:

“This appears to be part of a wider effort by…