Deploying sanctions against Russian oligarchs and banks was a no-brainer. Now comes the far thornier question about how far to go in canceling Vladimir Putin¡¯s Russia ¡ª not just politically connected elites but the athletes, artists and other symbolic ambassadors of the regime.
The All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club ¡ª the body that runs the historic Wimbledon championship ¡ª has decided to ban Russian and Belarusian tennis players from this year¡¯s tournament. Roland Garros, as the French Open is called, has not made a similar determination, which leaves the odd spectacle of Russian players being banned in some places and not others. One look at tennis Twitter and you can see a neatly divided fandom.
The Club would like this to be viewed as a principled decision, akin to the apartheid-era bans on South African athletes that served to ostracize the ruling National Party. But it risks looking more like a hollow display of off-court gamesmanship, like an orchestra refusing to play Tchaikovsky.
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