Russian 5* Judge Yuri Romanov Returns to Judging Under Neutral Flag

Dressage

Russia

FEI 5* judge Yuri Romanov will return to his international judging duties in 2026 under a neutral flag.

As of March 2022 all Russian athletes and officials have been banned due to Russia's invasion of Ukraine and on-going war mongering there, but at the 2025 General Assembly in Hong Kong in November 2025, the FEI opened the door again for Russian and Belarusian athletes as well as officials to return to competition under a neutral flag.

Romanov has taken the opportunity to return to his passion - judging - and will be officiating under "N2 status" as of 2026.

Romanov was promoted to 5* status at the start of 2023 but did not get to judge at this level at all because of the ban of Russian officials. Since the War in Ukraine Romanov has resigned and distanced himself from all official roles within the Russian Equestrian Federation, which has its seat in Moscow. He kept his skills up to par by remaining in the FEI education system and annually attending the 5* refresher seminars.

Romanov had a keen interest in horse since his childhood. He took up dressage age 15 and trained with Ivan Kalita, Nikolay Sitko and Alexander Shcherbaw. For a period Yuri rode with Detlef Saul in Germany. He took up national judging in the late 1990s and through Mariette Withages and Elena Petushkova got introduced to FEI international level judging. He became a 3* judge in 2005, a 4* judge in 2009 and had to wait almost 15 years before he got his 5* label.

Yuri is only one of two Russian judges with 5*/Level 4 status alongside Irina Maknami, who returned to judging in the spring of 2024 by declaring for Palestine.

Romanov's Neutral status has been confirmed by the FEI database on 15 December 2025.