Speaking to CBC’s The World At Six with Susan Bonner, Dr. Alan McDougall said there is “a lot of pressure on federations to be seen to be doing something” when it comes to Russian athletes amid the country’s invasion of Ukraine.

Some Russian athletes have spoken out against the war and some have expressed support for Putin’s actions. “Putin’s kind of use of sport for political reasons is nothing new,” he said, but “the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak and Russia is losing its grip on international sport.”

McDougall is a professor of history who studies the history of sport, particularly soccer as well as modern German and 20th-century European history.