Nikita Mazepin says sanctions placed upon him and other Russian athletes in the wake of the Ukraine conflict are “cancel culture”.
The former Formula 1 driver lost his seat at Haas just before the start of this season, while other racing drivers are having to abide by strict FIA guidelines including competing under a neutral flag.
Earlier this week, the FIA announced an investigation into a 15-year-old Russian go-karter, who was racing with an Italian licence, over an alleged Nazi salute he made while celebrating on the podium.
Russian driver Artyom #Severyukhin, competing under the Italian flag at the #European Junior Karting Championship, showed a #Nazi salute at the awards ceremony. He competing under the #Italian flag because of the sanctions imposed on #Russia.
Via @nssoundlab (reddit) pic.twitter.com/Z8fRaVggB4
— verri osvaldo (@verriosvaldo) April 11, 2022
As for Mazepin, he set up a new foundation called ‘We Compete As One’ to assist athletes who are unable to compete for political reasons.
While personally, he recently had a property worth $114m seized in Italy as part of EU sanctions placed upon him and his father Dmitry, who has close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I don’t agree with being in the sanctions,” he told BBC News. “I’ve said before I agree to fight it.
“Perhaps now is not the right time. If you look at the whole situation that is happening against athletes in the general case, it’s cancel culture against my country.”
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Mazepin was also asked about his feelings about the current events in Ukraine and offered a somewhat diplomatic answer.
“I live in the same world as you but it’s very painful to watch that [the war] on many levels,” he said.
“My feelings, they obviously changed as a human being and as a person that wants to live in a peaceful world.
“But I will be honest with you, I just see tremendous risks in saying anything at all about this case because I will never satisfy everyone. And therefore I will keep myself publicly quiet.”