It’s an exciting day for Russian sports fans as the national selection takes on Spain for the semi-final of the Euro Cup. The historic achievements of the squad, led by famous Dutch coach Guus Hiddink, have riveted the public, and certainly has not gone unnoticed by the Kremlin. We’ve blogged in the past about the state’s overlap with various sporting events for political purposes, and today the New Republic has an interesting article about how Russian politicians are doing everything possible to ride on the coattails of the team’s popularity – it’s sports nationalism at its best, Putin-style.

There’s much to be said for healthy sports nationalism, and it’s certainly not unheard of, particularly in Russia, to use sport as a means for promoting love of country. But Russian politicians are now doing it so overtly that the team seems irretrievably infused with the animating spirit of Putinism–one part inferiority complex, two parts rising superpower. Said then-prime minister Viktor Zubkov before Russia’s critical October qualification match against England: “They have 11 players, and we have 11 players. They have two arms and two hands and one head each, and we have the same. But do you know what the most important thing is? We, Russians, won World War II. And we were the first in space.” After Russia came from behind to win, pro-Putin parliamentarian Alexander Babakov exulted, “This victory will only boost Russia’s rebirth.”