Fencing may be a niche sport in Ireland but it finds itself embroiled in a controversy playing out internationally that includes a sanctioned Russian oligarch and his influence over the sport. Fencing Ireland, the organisation that oversees the sport in Ireland, has joined a chorus of fencing federations in Europe to protest changes to policies by the sport’s international governing body around the vetting of military links of fencers. The International Fencing Federation, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, is better known by its French initials FIE. FIE has altered its neutrality and vetting process for fencers competing under a neutral banner…

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