The stadium in Makhachkala, named after two-time Olympic champion Elena Isinbayeva, was renamed Trud. This is stated in the decree of the government of Dagestan.
In July, El Digital Sur wrote that Isinbayeva had moved to Spain and currently lives in Tenerife. There she bought a penthouse and two villas, which Navalny’s team later found out. Thanks to the purchase of villas, as noted by the investigators, she received a residence permit in Spain. Isinbayeva herself then wrote a post on her page on VKontakte, where she called herself a “man of the world” and stated that she lives where she works. The athlete also stated that “the titles that are being talked about today (in May 2015, Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu awarded her the rank of major) are nominal.”
Two days after the publication of this post, the head of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, proposed renaming the stadium. “Yes, this is a talented athlete who has set more than one world record, but she has never connected her life, her past and future with Dagestan. And the athlete’s recent statements made from behind the cordon are a serious signal for us and a reason to reconsider the name of the stadium “, – he said. – I instruct the Ministry of Sports of Dagestan and the mayor of Makhachkala to organize this work. And in honor of Elena Isinbayeva, let them name some gym in Spain, which she preferred to Russia.”
Elena Isinbayeva is a Russian pole vaulter with 28 world records. In 2012, she was a confidant of Vladimir Putin in the presidential elections, and in January 2020 she was included in the working group on amendments to the Constitution, which included zeroing Putin’s terms (the amendments allowed him to remain in power until 2036). After the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, according to Sota, Isinbayeva did not explicitly speak out against the war, but she did not publicly support it either.
Isinbayeva has been a member of the Commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) since 2016. In June 2023, the IOC ethics committee announced that it would be checked for support for hostilities and the presence of contractual obligations with military structures. It was noted that only the period after February 24, 2022 will be taken into account. In her July post, Yelena Isinbayeva stated that she would resume her activities at the IOC as early as September 2023, as the organization “has no doubts” about her.
Before Shoigu promoted her to the rank of major, she entered into a five-year contract with the Ministry of Defense and was appointed to the military position of athletics instructor at the Central Army Sports Club.
In February 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky imposed sanctions on Isinbayeva for supporting a full-scale Russian invasion. Alexei Navalny’s associates are planning to appeal to the Spanish authorities with a demand to cancel Isinbayeva’s residence permit and expel her from the country.
