Deryugina spoke about Kabaeva and her former coach Irina Viner, talking about how she received a message from them in March 2022. The Russians sent it on March 16, a month after the start of the full-scale invasion of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation in Ukraine, to congratulate the mother of Irina Deryugina, the honored coach of Ukraine Albina Deryugina, on her 90th birthday. Commenting on this, Deryugina called Viner and Kabaeva “people without brains.”
“I was filled with terrible feelings, because Viner and Kabaeva – they were with the government all the time, they always boasted about it – the fact that Kabaeva was in such a relationship [с Путиным]. Everything was built on this. Believe me, we lived with this at every start,” Deryugina noted.
The Ukrainian coach emphasized that Ukrainian gymnasts have always opposed Russians.
Video: Visiting Gordon / YouTube
