An American wrestling promotion is planning one of its first international events at a Moscow arena owned by a Russian bank that is under U.S. sanctions because of the war in Ukraine, potentially violating a presidential order, two policy experts told ESPN.
Real American Freestyle, which features unscripted Olympic-style wrestling, has a Sept. 5 event set at Moscow's VTB Arena, a multipurpose venue owned and named for VTB Bank, which is majority-owned by the Russian government.
The arena's website says the stadium complex is owned by VTB Arena LLC, a subsidiary of BM-Bank, according to the bank's financial disclosures. BM-Bank is itself owned by VTB Bank. Both are listed as entities under U.S. sanctions that prohibit Americans and American companies from transacting with them except under specific circumstances approved by the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
Real American Freestyle, which has held 11 events across the United States and one in the nation of Georgia, declined to directly answer ESPN's questions about the legality of the event.
"Our focus in Moscow is the same as it is everywhere RAF competes: the athletes, the competition and growing the sport of wrestling on an international stage," RAF CEO Chad Bronstein said. "RAF is committed to operating in full compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations, and we are working with independent U.S. sanctions counsel to ensure that remains the case."
Fox Nation, part of Fox News Media, had committed to stream every RAF event, including the Moscow card headlined by former UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev and former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley. The Fox Nation broadcasts have blended UFC and WWE-style presentation with wrestling, a sport that has historically been limited to college campuses and the Summer Olympics.
But after ESPN asked questions about the potential violations of U.S. sanctions, a Fox News spokesperson said the company decided Thursday that Fox Nation "will not be streaming the Moscow episode of Real American Freestyle."
The RAF card also features Olympic wrestling gold medalists Jordan Burroughs and Kyle Snyder and three-time NCAA wrestling champion Bo Nickal. The card lists 11 Russian wrestlers and nine Americans who are scheduled to compete, with the majority of matches pitting Russians against Americans.
Two sanctions policy experts told ESPN that the event likely runs afoul of U.S. sanctions intended to punish Russia for its ongoing invasion of an allied nation.
Richard Nephew, a senior research scholar and adjunct professor at Columbia and a former State Department principal deputy coordinator for sanctions policy, and Peter Harrell, an attorney and former White House senior director for international economics, noted that the Treasury Department can provide general exemptions for purposes such as humanitarian aid and journalism.
The experts both said those exemptions were unlikely to apply in the case of Real American Freestyle.
It is possible and common for Americans to apply for specific exemptions on a case-by-case basis, they said.
RAF declined to say if it had applied for or obtained such a license. A Treasury spokesperson said the department does not share or comment on specific licenses.
"Even if they've got the licenses," Nephew said of RAF, "that just means they can't be held liable by the U.S. government. That doesn't mean that they are not doing something that is deeply problematic."
Companies and individuals that violate sanctions law are subject to a range of penalties ranging from civil fines to prison time, though criminal prosecutions are typically reserved for people who knowingly and surreptitiously work with sanctioned entities, the experts said.
Lawmakers from both parties were critical of the scheduled event.
"On top of traveling to do business in a country actively trying to destroy the free democratic nation of Ukraine, RAF's plan to host a wrestling event at an arena owned by VTB Bank is deeply offensive," Rep. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, told ESPN in a statement.
Kaptur, the co-founder and co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus and a senior member of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said the RAF foray into Moscow underscores the need for stronger sanctions against the Putin government.
"This is the same murderous regime that is working alongside Iran to kill American soldiers in the Middle East," she said. "Hosting a sporting event and parading American athletes around Moscow is morally repugnant -- and doing so violates U.S. sanctions and will have serious consequences."
Reps. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Don Bacon, R-Neb., a member of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus, warned that an American sports league hosting an event in Russia serves to legitimize the regime.
"I urge that this event not be held in Russia," Bacon said in a statement to ESPN. "Russia, under Putin, is a pariah state that is committing war crimes every day. Every Russian should know that the free world disdains Putin and his bombings of innocent civilians."
Said Meeks: "Sports can serve as a bridge between nations and a forum to rise above geopolitical disagreements. But Russia's illegal war against Ukraine is not a mere geopolitical disagreement -- it is an act of unprovoked aggression that must not be normalized, especially not by U.S.-based sports organizations and certainly not in violation of U.S. sanctions."
RAF was co-founded in 2025 by Bronstein, the late Hulk Hogan, longtime pro wrestling executive Eric Bischoff and wrestling coach Izzy Martinez, a former junior college wrestling champion, with backing from investors including General Atlantic and Left Lane Capital.
This week, RAF announced the U.S. Air Force was an "official partner" of the league, citing their shared values.
"The Air Force does have an official partnership with RAF Wrestling to support our national recruiting and public outreach efforts," an Air Force spokesperson said in a statement. "In accordance with Department of War ethics regulations, this partnership does not constitute an official Air Force endorsement of RAF Wrestling or its associated commercial enterprises. The Air Force does not publicly disclose the specific financial arrangements or contractual details of marketing and recruiting partnerships."
VTB Bank has played several roles in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In 2024, the bank announced it had opened several new branches in occupied parts of Ukraine, serving soldiers and civilians. In 2023, Vladimir Putin signed a presidential decree transferring the government's stake in Russian warship manufacturer United Shipbuilding Corporation to VTB.
On Wednesday, Democratic lawmakers, in a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, accused the White House of allowing Russia to evade sanctions by declining to issue new sanction targets for 17 months.
But VTB has been on Treasury's radar since 2014, the year Russian forces annexed Crimea and invaded the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine. In June, Treasury reached a $1.05 million settlement with Washington-based FTI Consulting over sanctions violations stemming from work it performed for VTB in connection with a civil lawsuit in Singapore.
ESPN researcher Gueorgui Milkov contributed to this report.