“A refugee has won our second medal,” all of Austria rejoiced over precious metal in Tokyo. Judoka Shamil Borchashvili (26) sensationally captured Olympic bronze. The native Chechen had fled to Austria at the age of nine. But a video now raises doubts about his loyalty. There he is said to dedicate his success to the Chechen people, also thanks Chechen dictator Kadyrov and ends with “Allahu Akbar”.
“I am so grateful. And so happy for Austria that I won the medal,” cheered the tearful Borchashvili in Tokyo, wrapped in a red-white-red flag. On Thursday, however, a video emerged that could give the likeable athlete a difficult time explaining himself. The well-known “Islamist hunter” Irfan Peci even writes of the “true face of the Austrian bronze medallist Borchashvili”.
Peci says: “The Austrian bronze Olympic champion and native Chechen Shamil Borchashvili pays homage to the President of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov in this video! He dedicates the victory to “the Chechen people”, thanks “our leader Ramsan” and ends the greeting video with the greeting “Allahu Akbar” used by Islamists and a raised right index finger! In recent days, the media have stylised Borchashvili as a hero and presented his life as the success story of a refugee par excellence! Now the reason for fleeing turns out to be completely false, because the family can hardly have fled from Kadyrov’s reign of terror if he at the same time hails him as “our leader”. The same media that portrayed Borchashvili as a model refugee repeatedly report how Kadyrov has opposition members murdered, kidnapped and tortured and, above all, persecutes homosexuals”.In fact, homosexuals in particular are said to be systematically persecuted and tortured in Chechnya. When asked by eXXpress, Peci assured us that the translation in the video had been secured by two independent Chechens. The video was leaked by Chechen opposition activists. In addition, Russian media are already reporting on the case. A request to the IOC remained unanswered until the publication of this article.