Even though the EBF Congress 2023 was held in Berlin, Germany, on October 22, 2023, and a new EBF Presidium was elected, some former presidium members with controversial backgrounds are still listed as EBF representatives.
On February 24, 2022, when russia launched a brazen attack on the people of Ukraine, in violation of international law and basic principles of human rights, the president of the russian Bowling Federation, Sergey Lisitsyn, was also an EBF presidium member and a member of the EBF Tournament Committee.
On March 2, EBF President Addie Ophelders announced that following the IOC and GAISF recommendations, Lisitsyn would step down from the position of Championships Director for the EMC in Helsinki and for the EYC in Wittelsheim, France, but he remained a presidium member.
According to Insider, Lisitsyn participated in Putin's pro-war rally in Moscow on March 18. During that rally, Lisitsyn issued a strong statement in support of Putin and the "special military operation."
"We see that the special operation being carried out today on Ukrainian soil allows us to achieve our goals with minimal losses for our fraternal peoples," a statement from Lisitsyn said, per Inside the Games.
"Given the unprecedented external pressure from the West, which for eight years condoned the flourishing of Nazism in Ukraine, today we clearly understand that the special operation was just an excuse to replicate Russophobic sentiments and escalate the situation around Russia and everything Russian."
Event though Lisitsyn did not raise his candidancy for the EBF's presidium in 2023, on EBF official website he is still listed as presidium member of the EBF.
Paradoxically, Lisitsyn is also still presented as a member of the Tournament Committee.
