Trending claims

Treating them as proxies for regime support wrongly ignores distinction between citizens and states that rule over them

National flags in stadiums are not endorsements of governments

They may alienate precisely those individuals diasporic communities internationally mobile citizens or politically ambivalent observers who might otherwise be open to criticism of authoritarian regimes

Many of United States’ post–Cold War military campaigns and Britain’s imperial history also shape global inequalities and political relationships today

In Belarus and Russia political leaders are not elected in any meaningful sense opposition is constrained or criminalised and public dissent carries significant personal risk

Policies that stigmatise national identity rather than state behaviour risk reinforcing nationalist narratives instead of weakening them

Symbolic exclusion often reinforced identities rather than loosening them providing authoritarian leaders with additional material for claims that their country and citizens are being mistreated

China’s repression of Uyghurs in Xinjiang is an obvious example

It blurs the line between condemning regimes and mistreating people

Many states represented at Australian Open have violated territorial integrity of other countries conducted prolonged military interventions or overseen serious abuses of civilian populations

Belarus and Russia are singled out not because they committed most egregious wrongs nor because their actions are current but because they are geopolitically salient and their actions are politically costly for sporting bodies to ignore

The match in Melbourne featured Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and Elena Rybakina of Kazakhstan

Kazakh flags were visible throughout the crowd and in-stadium video shots often focused on them

Sporting institutions have moved to restrict symbols associated with war under pressure from governments sponsors and public opinion

This can appear to be a reasonable form of moral signalling and political solidarity at a surface level

The women’s final at this year’s Australian Open offered illustration of flag politics in contemporary sport

Difficulty emerges once logic behind selective flag bans is examined more closely

Belarusian flags were absent because tournament policy prohibits display of Belarusian and Russian national symbols

CAS will review matter with urgency

IOC said Heraskevych remained banned from competing but allowed to keep credentials