Disney, Cannes, Sony, Eurovision: they all canceled Russia

After Russian military forces led by Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on February 24, people all over the world have responded with indignation. Putin's Russia is not welcome anymore at a number of cultural and sports events.

Sony has been the latest major entertainment company, after Disney and Warner Bros, to withdraw its new releases from Russian theaters.

Releases such as 'The Batman' (Warner), 'Turning Red' (Disney) and 'Morbius' (Sony), which were to hit Russian theaters in March, have been halted and, for the time being, will only be released outside of Russia.

Apart from the film boycots of Russia, the Cannes Film Festival has also announced that it will not receive any Russian delegation. It wants to show its "full support to the people of Ukraine and all those on its territory," the organization said in a statement.

Apple has been another major company that stopped its sales in (and export to) Russia. At the same time, it has limited the Apple Pay system for online payments. But its most applauded intervention has been to restrict Ukrainian map information in Apple Maps.

Technology giants such as Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft have limited their facilities for the dissemination of information by media outlets sympathetic to the Russian government. They are against the spread of false information and aim to ensure public safety.

Google, for its part, has also disabled direct traffic data from Google Maps to protect the privacy of citizens and prevent them from being geolocated.

YouTube, meanwhile, has blocked the Russia Today and Sputnik channels, both of which are pro-Putin.

Nike and Adidas have also joined the actions against Russia. The American multinational has temporarily halted the sale of its products in Russia. The German firm, for its part, has stopped its collaboration with the Russian Football Federation immediately.

The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), organizer of the Eurovision Song Contest, has expelled Russia from its 2022 contest. The country's participation in the musical competition would not correspond with "the rules of the event and the values of the EBU," they said in an official statement.

Interestingly, the decision came just hours after the organization had insisted that Russia should stay on as a contestant. The EBU had argued that Eurovision is "a cultural event of a non-political nature" and that no country could therefore be excluded from it on the basis of politics. Apparently, Putin has gone too far even from a "non-political" perspective.

The 2022 World Cup soccer in Qatar has been very controversial from the moment it was announced. If there is anything missing from an event in a country that doesn't have a football tradition, where there is little space and high temperatures, and where human rights have been violated with regard to the migrant workers who build the stadiums, then there's the issue of Russia now.

After thinking it over for a bit, the FIFA has announced that Russia is out of the Qatar 2022 World Cup. The decision comes after a number of countries had already refused to play against the Russian team in any occasion before or during the tournament.

Initially, FIFA had opted to allow Russia to compete in the World Cup qualifiers, as long as it used the name of the Russian Football Union instead of a national representation. The team was to leave the Russian flag at home, play no national anthem and avoid Russian football fields.  The problem with this option? The team had no one to play against.

The Polish team, through its captain Robert Lewandowski, had been the first to communicate that it refused to play against Russia in the decisive play-off semifinal that would give one of the two teams a ticket to the World Cup in Qatar.

The match was to be played in Moscow (March 24) and the winner would face the Czech Republic or Sweden on March 29. However, the Swedes and Czechs joined Poland and said they would refuse to play against Russia. The English, Welch and Danish teams have said the same.

For its part, the French team says that it "does not oppose the exclusion of Russia from the World Cup," as the president of the French Football Federation, Noël Le Graët, confirms.

The principal European football competition, the Champions League, has also taken action against Russia. The final of the league was to be held in St. Petersburg. It has now been moved to Paris. UEFA, the European football organization, goes hand in hand with the global FIFA. They have also consulted the IOC (International Olympic Committee).

Equally forceful has been the measure taken in the Europa League. Spartak Moscow has been expelled from the competition. The games it was supposed to play against the German team of Leipzig (on March 10 and 17) are therefore considered as wins by the German team. It will go directly to the quarterfinals.

From football to ballet, Russia is banned everywhere. London's Royal Opera House has canceled performances of the Bolshoi's legendary Russian ballet, removing it from its schedule entirely.

Formula 1 has been blunt and quick in making decisions: the 2022 Russian GP is suspended and the Sochi circuit, where it had been held continuously since 2014, is out.

Everything indicates that the cancellation is definitive. It remains to be seen what happens with the St. Petersburg circuit, where the Russian GP was to be held in 2023.

The International Chess Federation has announced that the 44th Chess Olympiad will no longer be held in Russia. It's a competition in which representatives from almost 200 countries were going to participate, and Russian players are always very strong competitors there.

The International Congress of Mathematicians (ICM) that was to be held in Russia in July 2022 will now be virtual. It will not take place in St. Petersburg anymore. The Fields Medals, the most important prize in the field, are usually awarded at this congress.

In basketball, the Euroleague has decided that the games scheduled on Russian soil are immediately suspended. The first match canceled was Barcelona-CSKA Moscow, which was to be played on February 27.

At the same time, a number of foreign players in Russian teams, like Zenit St. Petersburg, CSKA Moscow and Unics Kazan, have announced that they are leaving their teams immediately. Thus, Shabazz Napier, Kuzminskas and Gudaitis leave Zenit; while Toko Shengelia, Voigtmann, Grigonis and Lundberg do the same with CSKA Moscow.

The termination of their contracts means that, with the market closed, they cannot play this year's competition with another team.