russia Weaponizes Youth Sports in Zaporizhzhia, Sowing Discord and Recruiting Informants
In the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhia region, law enforcement officers affiliated with the Investigative Committee recently conducted a sweep of children’s sports sections within the city. Ostensibly focused on questioning teenagers about their training conditions, the true objective was to identify families perceived as disloyal to the occupying forces. The teenagers were subtly coerced into reporting “suspicious persons”, effectively encouraging them to inform on their classmates and neighbors.
This strategy by the russians aims to sow discord among young athletes, fostering division within their ranks to isolate a specific group and align them with the occupiers’ ideologies. Essentially, it reflects a calculated effort to implement the age-old principle of divide and rule.
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The National Resistance Center underscores that it was russia that deprived the occupied regions of their sporting prospects, resulting in the majority of remaining athletes being unable to participate in international competitions.
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