A formal Ukraine FIA complaint has landed on the desk of motorsport’s governing body, with the Ukrainian Automobile Federation demanding an urgent investigation into its Russian counterpart weeks after the FIA lifted its ban on Russian and Belarusian competitors.
The Ukrainian Automobile Federation (FAU) lodged the complaint with the FIA ethics committee on Thursday, alleging that the Russian Automobile Federation (RAF) is in breach of the rules governing national sporting authorities.
At its heart is a territorial argument: the FAU says the RAF has “opened and continues to operate” offices in Crimea, the city of Sevastopol and the Donetsk and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts — regions recognised by the United Nations as sovereign Ukrainian territory.
What the Ukraine FIA complaint alleges
The FAU points to a breach of “Article 3.3 of the FIA Statutes and Article 1.4.1 of the International Sporting Code, both of which provide that only one ASN may be recognised per country, with authority extending over that country’s entire national territory”.
If the RAF is administering motorsport inside Ukraine’s internationally recognised borders, the argument runs, it is doing so in direct contravention of the FIA’s own constitution — a rulebook the federation is bound by as an FIA member.
The complaint also notes that the RAF’s leadership, including president Boris Rotenberg, is “directly subject to international sanctions imposed by the US, UK, EU, and other allied jurisdictions in response to aggression against Ukraine”.
The FAU has asked the ethics committee to find the RAF in breach of the statutes, order the offices closed with immediate effect and sanction the Russian body for operating them.
“This is a clear breach of the FIA Statutes by the Russian Automobile Federation, which, as an FIA member organisation, is bound to comply with them,” FAU president Oleksandr Feldman said. “We urge the FIA President to take urgent action to have these offices closed, and for the Russian Automobile Federation to be sanctioned for its actions.”
Why the ethics committee route matters
The choice of forum is where this becomes awkward for the FIA. The reversal of the ban was approved by the FIA’s World Council earlier this month, and BBC Sport reports that sources have told it the proposal came from FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem. The same report notes that, following changes to the FIA statutes last year, the ethics committee now sits under the control of Ben Sulayem and his ally Carmelo Sanz de Barros, the president of the FIA senate.
In other words, a complaint about a decision attributed to the president is to be examined by a body he oversees.
That does not predetermine the outcome, but it does hand Ukraine a second line of attack should the complaint be rejected, and it guarantees the governance question stays alive well beyond this weekend’s racing. The FIA has been approached for comment.
Where the row goes next
Restrictions on Russian and Belarusian competitors had stood since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The reversal allows those drivers to compete under their national flags again, following a comparable relaxation at Olympic level, though it stops short of permitting international events to be staged in Russia itself.
Ukraine had already called for the decision to be undone; we covered the FIA’s lifting of the Russia ban and Ukraine’s initial appeal when the ruling emerged. This complaint is a sharper instrument: rather than contesting the eligibility decision on political grounds, it attacks the RAF’s standing as a recognised national authority under the FIA’s own rules. No timetable has been set for a ruling, and there is no indication the FIA intends to revisit the eligibility change in the meantime, according to Motorsport.com.
