Justice for Russia

  In recent weeks Russian media has been actively reporting efforts by the World Anti-Doping Agency, various sports federations and athletes from other countries to try to get the entire Russian Olympic team disqualified. The accusations against coaches, athletes and sports bureaucrats (most damningly from the Mclaren Report) are very serious, so much so that it is understandable that all those concerned about clean sports and fair competition would seek a way to insure that those responsible would be punished and that others would think twice before cheating.
  And yet... Russian athletes are in Rio. Some of them. The clean ones. Maybe. But probably not. Probably we will find out later that one or another or half a dozen others had been taking some forbidden substance. And we will find out similar things about other athletes from other parts of the world. So far no method has been found to exclude all those who refuse to abide by the rules of fair play. 

  But this is not what concerns me. What concerns me is the large number of clean athletes (including the entire track and field team, many of whom have never even been suspected of doping) who have become the victims of the inconsistent and unjust search for a scapegoat in this situation. Russian athletes do not train together as one national team, nor do the sports federations (e.g., track and field) even spend that much time together. Even if Russia's problems with doping are worse than anyone else's (and that has yet to be proven) that still does not mean that the only solution was to exclude athletes from the Games. 
  And now, as of yesterday, the entire Paralympic team has been disqualified. This despite the fact that most of the problems with the Russian Paralympic team had to do with athletes for the Winter Games, and so these athletes have nothing to do with that situation.  
  From my perspective this reminds me of first grade, when our teacher, Ms. Helt, punished the whole class because someone knocked down one of her posters. Now sometimes such an approach might be necessary, but there should be no illusions about this having anything to do with justice. In fact this sort of punishment undermines the very idea that a just solution can be found. 
  I reflect upon this situation in particular as a person who attempts to teach Christian ethics in Russia. This has been one of the more interesting (and, to be honest, frustrating) parts of my ministry. When teaching for the full-time program at the Theological Seminary I taught two courses for all of our students, and it remains a relevant topic for my work with laity in my current call – I look forward to returning to the theme this winter, for example, when I visit congregations in south-central Siberia this winter. 
  One of the central aspects of any course on ethics is “justice.” Usually I approach the subject in this way: in coming to understand whether or not or judgments are just, we begin with the basic equality of all people. We then consider consider rewards and punishments based on actions, and finally take into account relevant qualifiers. Of course this relatively-easy-sounding formula becomes quite complicated when applied to concrete situations, but this framework can at least help us to sense where grave injustices lie and can help lead us into the theme of personal responsibility.
  And it is when we approach responsibility where I ran into serious challenges as a teacher, especially with the younger students in Novosaratovka. (As an aside, I must say that many people in our church understand responsibility quite well – in fact, this is especially true among the laity with whom I work; they are grown adults who have had to make many responsible decisions, including the responsibility of being a member of a church that is not well understood in their society.) Many of the full time seminary students had serious doubts about the initial premise of my approach to justice – equality. Their own experience frequently confirmed what the older generation had learned after the disillusionment following the Communist period – even when everyone is equal, some are more equal than others. 

The smallest fish says "there is no justice in the world."
The middle fish says,"you can't say that the world is completely injustice."
The largest fish says, "the world is just."

  In terms of justice as it relates to their own person and own interests, many seem resigned to Fate. But when it comes to international affairs (and this can bee anything to visa rules to the results of Eurovision to world politics) many people here have a heightened sense of lack of justice in regards to their country; they are convinced that the world has it “out for them.” Sometimes these concerns seem to me as an outsider to be unfounded, but other times (and the scandal around doping seems to be one of those times) it seems that if the country involved were not Russia (but some country with a better reputation or, lacking that, more clout, worldwide) the reaction to the problem would be quite different. In this case, if there is no basic equality, any conversation about merits or faults becomes meaningless. How can we say that the standard is “innocent until proven guilty” when the case with the Russian Olympians has been just the opposite? How can we talk about personal responsibility when just for being a paralympic athlete with a Russian passport, you are immediately disqualified from competition? 
  This is not just about a country, but about real individuals. There is a “human cost” for those whose countries are disqualified from competing, as the Washington Post pointed out. The story of this athlete is from Kuwait, but there are dozens of similar stories from here.  

Pole Vaulter Elena Isinbaeva, one of the those athletes whose dreams were shattered
 by the decisions made about the Rio Olympics.  

  I do not claim to have a perfect solution to the problems raised recently about doping in Russian sports. But what I do know is that the current actions of those in the West fighting for Russian disqualification should realize that such an approach undermines efforts to be seen as fair and unbiased and instead reinforces the sense of many here that justice is at best an illusion and at worst a tool the powerful use against their opponents. 
  And that makes it not only more difficult to teach Christian ethics, it also hinders the Christian churches' efforts to work for justice in this place. Perhaps the world should be less concerned with justice for Russia and more concerned about justice for Russians.