But after she supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a number of European Ski Federations objected to her participation in the 2022 election, and Välbe's nomination was publicly opposed by the representatives of Sweden, Poland, and Finland.

[3] She also won three gold (all in relays) and four bronze medals in various Winter Olympic Games as well as the FIS Cross-Country World Cup five times (1989, 1991, 1992, 1995, 1997).

[6] Välbe was elected to the FIS Council in 2021, but after she supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022,[7] a number of European Ski Federations objected to her participation in the 2022 election, and Välbe's nomination was publicly opposed by the representatives of Sweden, Poland, and Finland.

[2][8][9] Välbe was a member of the political council of Vladimir Putin's United Russia party in the State Duma from the regional branch, and ran in the 2021 Russian legislative election on the United Russia party list.

[11] In 2023, Välbe joined the PutinTeam, whose members supported Vladimir Putin's nomination for the 2024 Russian presidential election.

"[13][14] In January 2023, sports commentator Jan Petter Saltvedt of Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation (NRK) said that he believes Välbe must now be fired from all sport-related offices going forward.

He said: "It is completely reprehensible that a cross-country president makes such statements [supporting the invasion of Ukraine].

Now she is choosing a confrontational line that either shows her internal position is weakened, or she is confident that Russia will be brought back faster than many thought.

European politicians today were 90% chosen from a cohort of people who have some kind of terrible kompromat [compromising materials] on them.

Look how Georgia Meloni [of Italy] "changed her shoes", who before the elections shouted that she was against these genders [LGBTQ+ community], that no weapons were going to be supplied [to Ukraine].

"[17] In September 2024, she said that ‘if Russia dropped a bomb in London, Russians would be allowed to attend the Olympics’.

[23][7] Explaining her character, she said that as a child, she and her mother Galina Grigorievna Synkova lived with her maternal grandparents.

[1][23] She later gave birth to Polina and Varvara, and since her divorce moved to and now lives in the Istra district in Moscow Oblast.