Poland won the European Tree of the year competition this year after Russia was disqualified over its invasion of Ukraine. Russian tree is not the first strange thing to get banned from competitions, earlier Russian cats were banned from international competitions as well.
In a largely symbolic effort against the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a group in Brussels disqualified Russia’s candidate, an oak tree planted by novelist Ivan Turgenev 198 years ago from the competition. The organizers of the competition, one of the largest competitions devoted to trees, said in a statement that they cannot stand idly by and watch the unprecedented aggression of the Russian leadership against a neighbouring country.
Russia’s tree competition liaison, Sergey Palchikov, was severely displeased with the decision to remove the Russian tree from the competition. In a letter to the organizers, Palchikov said, “With unconcealed surprise and chagrin, we learned that the Russian tree, the famous Turgenev Oak, planted by the hands of the great Russian writer Ivan Turgenev and killed by a hurricane at the end of last year, was practically killed with your help for the second time.”
Furthermore, Palchikov pointed out that Russia’s trees had won first, second or third place in all four years that Russia competed in the competition.
The winner from Poland, a 400 years old Oak tree won as the organizers felt it symbolized Polish resistance to aggression and a warm welcome to refugees from Ukraine. The second place went to a 250 years old oak tree in the Santiago de Compostela region of Spain while the third place was bagged by a 250 years old cork oak tree in Vale do Pereiro in Portugal.
European tree of the year competition has been running since 2011, with 15 participating countries as of now. It drew inspiration from a Czech tree of the year competition.
