Megawydarzenia sportowe na obszarze postradzieckim a kreowanie wizerunku państw-gospodarzy
Sporting mega-events on the post-Soviet area and creation of the image of the host states

Summary/Abstract: The aim of the article is to present the political context of promotional activities of Ukraine and Russia related to sport mega-events: the 2012 UEFA European Football Championship, the Winter Olympic Games in Sochi in 2014, and the 2018 FIFA World Cup. The research problem is to determine how Ukraine and Russia tried to shape their image, using those sporting events as a chance for the promotion of their countries’ image more than twenty years after the dissolution of the USSR and, in the case of Russia, in the context of criticism for authoritarianism and breaking the international law. The research method is a comparative analysis of the promotional and propaganda message created by Ukraine and Russia (logos, slogans, video clips, ceremonies, statements of politicians) in connection with sporting events, in the context of the current internal and external political situation. The hypothesis put forward is that for Ukraine, the promotional campaign before Euro 2012 was basically the beginning of any international promotional activities and was carried out on a not very high quality level. In the case of Russia, the greater image resources and stronger instruments in the hands of the authorities, allowed the creation of two completely different promotional campaigns: referring to high culture and civilization achievements in 2014, and „provincial” in 2018, both being components of Vladimir Putin’s politics.

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