This might be a little complex for people to understand UNLESS you look under the surface and think a little deeper.
Banning Russian athletes from competitions, Not displaying Russian art at international art festival or banning cultural pavilions may SEEM like the organizers are punishing the athletes, artists or cultural groups HOWEVER it's the symbolism of exclusion and opposition to what the leaders and politicians of that country are doing which is the message here.
If these athletes, artists and people are impacted by their exclusion - it may serve as a way for them to put pressure on their own tyrannical governments to stop doing what they are doing. Pressure from expats and others, in today's age of social media can be a powerful tool used to influence the support (or opposition) to what their leaders are doing.
Is it virtue signaling? ..... you bet it is ...... is it for the right reasons? ..... in this case (and many others) it is.
The term virtue signaling has negative connotations because many do it with disingenuous self serving mandates (like Trudeau) - but when used as an effective tool for the right reasons it can have a huge impact.
So, yeah, I agree with SNS, this is the right move.
The intent is not to punish good people (like KGB or any other expat) but, instead, it may serve to mobilize influencers to bring an end to this terrible regime's atrocities as they continue to destroy a country, kill civilians and destabilize an entire region for what?????
At some point you have to believe the tens of thousands of mothers of poorly trained and equipped (often unwilling) Russian soldiers might be upset with this. Sending your sons to die to support a Regime that kills as many of their own as it does "the enemy" for nothing.
If banning a tennis player or pavilion get us one small step closer to ending this atrocity .... then I'm in favor of it.
Heck I bet SNS would even sit and have a beer with KGB without any incident
I volunteer to be there to break them up if they do decide to rumble