European Aquatics has asked World Aquatics for a delay until 1 September 2026 in implementing the global regulator's controversial bylaw allowing the full participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in international competitions once more.

Despite the continuing war on Ukraine, including the murder of citizens, the destruction of infrastructure and the financial burden Putin's aggression has placed on European nations (burdens that spill to the subsidisation and funding of sport), World Aquatics decreed last month that athletes from the aggressor nations could once more compete without restriction and with their respective uniforms, flags and anthems. The logic is yet to be explained, let alone accepted.

A European Aquatics statement tells of the latest twist:

“Following a meeting of the Bureau on 30 April 2026, it was agreed to request a delay of implementation of the recently approved AQUA bylaw concerning the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in international aquatic competitions.

“The request asks that the bylaw, which permits the return of these athletes to full participation across all aquatic disciplines, not be enacted by European Aquatics until 1 September 2026.

“Until that date, athletes and teams from Russia and Belarus who have been approved under existing eligibility criteria will remain able to compete in European Aquatics competitions exclusively under the status of Individual Neutral Athletes (AIN).”

Whatever the full arguments may be behind the request, one thing is clear: neither France, host of the Europeans in Paris July 31 to August 16, nor any other EU nation, nor several beyond that, including Great Britain, want Putin's 'sporting army' back in the water in full colours until the slaughter stops and Russia has withdrawn from Ukraine.

That much was known, of course, when Antonio Silva, a vice-president of World Aquatics who leads European Aquatics, voted in favour of letting the Russians back in, full strip. Now, it seems, he's under pressure to change course, the request for delay a compromise among federations that may want that compromise to last beyond September if there is no change in a war that will bring political pressure down on their heads whether sport likes it or not.

The argument is not one that can simply be paid off with 'we don't do politics', when those politics spill directly into the lives of those doing the sport and those paying for it. Indeed, the World Aquatics' move has been seen as highly political in itself.

It appears to take the global regulator back to a time when the brand was FINA and its president Julio Maglione was a great chum of Vladimir Putin's. Both are in our main photo, with Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah to Putin's left (right as you look at the photo). As head of the Olympic Council for Asia, the sheikh was the boss of fellow Kuwaiti and current World Aquatics president Husain Al-Musallam. Both men were cited by the U.S. department of Justice as co-conspirators in the fraud case that sent Guam football official Richard Lai to jail.

In May 2024, on other grounds, the IOC imposed a 15-year suspension on the sheikh for “a betrayal of his IOC Member’s oath, as well as the seriousness of the damage to the IOC’s reputation”, that wording approved by the Olympic body’s executive board on a recommendation from its ethics commission.

A flashpoint approaches for swimming when it comes to Russia, not least of all because World Aquatics is now based in Hungary, a nation under a new regime and back in harmony with the EU, which is watching the sports landscape with a keener eye given the need for all sectors to do their bit when it comes to the economic impact of Russian aggression.

There's this, too: Ukraine’s Youth and Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi condemned the World Aquatics’ decision at the time, saying:

“Sport should unite people around fair rules and respect for life. The return of the flag of a country that disregards these rules and systematically destroys them is an alarming signal for the entire sporting community.”

“Today, our athletes train under attacks, and against this backdrop, any talk of ‘neutrality’ or the return of the aggressor’s symbols appears shameful and detached from reality. We call on the international community not to become complicit in legitimising aggression through the sporting achievements of athletes who are, in effect, part of Russia’s propaganda machine.”

The world governing body’s action prompted immediate opposition across Europe, with Olympic 200 'fly champion of 2004 Otylia Jedrzejczak – now head of the Polish Swimming Federation – noting that the city of Rzeszow would not stage the 2027 European Diving Championships with Russian participation should the war still be ongoing.

Jedrzejczak's stance is in line with those of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Estonia, the Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia and Lithuania, Nordic nations that have also refused to host competitions under World Aquatics' bylaw until the war is over and reparations agreed.