Russian politicians and sports officials have criticised plans by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to partially re-admit its athletes as not being good enough and they seek a full return.
The IOC had on Tuesday proposed to allow Russians and Belarusians back as neutral athletes, and under strict criteria.
The criteria include not actively supporting the invasion of Ukraine and not training as clubs with links to security and armed forces.
The IOC has also excluded team sports from the proposal and said it would make a decision on their participation at next year’s Paris Olympics at a later stage.
“IOC recommendations to qualify Russian athletes are arbitrary, and its separate decision regarding team sports is openly discriminative.
“Our athletes are invited to go through a door left ajar, but at the same time additional obstacles are created for them,” Russian sports minister Oleg Matytsin said on the ministry’s Telegram channel.
“Athletes practise hard for years to compete …. It is their job, it is their life, and it would be inhumane to deprive them of this opportunity.”
Russia’s Olympic Committee (ROC) president Stanislav Pozdnyakov said the “parameters announced are absolutely unacceptable”, in remarks carried by state news agency TASS.
“The neutral status is a violation of human rights, which a UN expert has pointed out. We consider the proposed conditions unreasonable, legally unsound and excessive.
“We strongly disagree with additional anti-doping procedures for the Russian athletes.”
Russian and Belarusian athletes have been suspended from most international sports events since the start of the invasion.
In addition, Russian athletes were only allowed to compete as neutrals at the last Olympics in 2018, (2020)2021 and 2022, owing to doping-related sanctions.(dpa/NAN)
