Lithuanian Flag Appears on the Same Stage as Putin

A Lithuanian flag appeared at the opening of the so-called World Nomad Games in Bishkek, only for a large Russian delegation to walk onto the same stage moments later. Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who launched the war in Ukraine and has increasingly threatened European countries, waved to participants from the stands.

Marijus Tumas, the Lithuanian representative who attended the opening, insists he did not see Putin himself. He says he saw what was supposedly a hologram instead. “Nobody here is interested in him, nobody here needs him. And, frankly, nobody even noticed him. Some kind of hologram flashed by. But he is not a person anyone here is interested in,” Tumas said.

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Nobody here is interested in him, nobody here needs him. And, frankly, nobody even noticed him. Some kind of hologram flashed by. But he is not a person anyone here is interested in.

Video footage and photographs from the event, however, appear to show the Russian president attending in person. Tumas said Russia was simply one of the participating countries and rejected any political interpretation of his presence. “It was some kind of hologram that someone sent. Believe me, there is no politics here. There is no love for Russians. There is no love for Russians here,” he said.

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It was some kind of hologram that someone sent. Believe me, there is no politics here. There is no love for Russians. There is no love for Russians here.

The Lithuanian Education, Science and Sports Ministry said it knew little about the event. It also said that no organization or athlete had received ministry funding to take part. Responsibility for preparing athletes and sending them to international competitions, the ministry said, lies with national sports federations.

Virgilijus Alekna, a member of the Lithuanian parliament’s Youth and Sports Affairs Commission, said he could not understand why some Lithuanian athletes chose to attend such events. He suggested that organizers were trying, somewhat provocatively, to involve as many countries as possible.

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About the Nomad Games, I have certainly heard very little. The number of participants is not small. The organizers, I think, are trying somewhat provocatively to involve as wide a range of countries as possible.

The games are held every two years and began in Kyrgyzstan. They focus on traditional sports associated with nomadic peoples, including horse sports, wrestling, archery and board games. Organizers say about 3,000 participants from more than 100 countries gathered this year. Stanislav Bajurin, president of Lithuania’s Ethnosports Committee, compared the event’s expansion to the Olympic movement, saying it had moved beyond its original nomadic traditions to include other countries. Tumas also said Ukrainians were participating.

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They took mainly nomadic traditions involving horses, wrestling, archery, board games and other things. Now they have added other countries as well. It is like the Olympic movement in Athens. It is not only Greeks who take part there, but the whole world. They are doing the same thing.