MOSCOW, April 22. /TASS/. Russia’s leading stance in global sports is solid and it can be confirmed by the recent performance as well as results displayed by Russian athletes at international competitions, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday.
“Your performance and [following] results are a significant contribution to confirming Russia’s leading stance in global sports, strong and resolute positions, despite unfair attempts to undermine them,” Putin said at a ceremony in the Kremlin to award state awards to Russia’s medalists of the boxing world champions.
Putin stated at the meeting that innumerable sports triumphs lie ahead for Russian athletes under the country’s flag and to the tune of the national anthem.
“I am positive that many sports triumphs, including in the global arena, lie ahead for you and your compatriots in various sports competitions. And they will be achieved under the country’s flag and to the tune of the national anthem,” Putin continued.
The Russian president also pointed out that the new executive administration of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) must put the shameful and complicated legacy of its predecessors behind them as soon as possible.
“I hope that the new leadership of the International Olympic Committee, just like international sports federations, will be able to overcome, as I have previously pointed out, this difficult and shameful legacy of their predecessors as soon as possible,” Putin noted.
IOC sanctions against Russia, Belarus
On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to prohibit athletes from Russia and Belarus from participating in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.
Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.
In late March, 2023, the IOC recommended allowing individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to participate in international sports tournaments, but only under specific conditions. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be “actively supporting” Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.
On October 12, 2023, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.
