The Russian Federation negatively perceives the IOC’s decision on Russian athletes – Kommersant

Russia will continue to monitor the actions of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) regarding Russian athletes, said presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov. He criticized the ban imposed by the IOC on the participation of Russians and Belarusians in the opening ceremony of the Olympics in Paris.

“We perceive this negatively, of course. This is the destruction of the idea of ​​Olympism, this is an infringement of the interests of athletes, Olympians. Of course, this absolutely contradicts the entire ideology of the Olympic movement, it absolutely does not look good on the IOC,” said a Kremlin representative during a press call. He called the statement of one of the IOC representatives positive that the participants of the Games will not have to sign any additional papers.

Dmitry Peskov also noted that the Russian authorities have a negative attitude towards the IOC’s statement about possible sanctions for athletes for participating in the Friendship Games in Russia. Mr. Peskov called it intimidation. He claims that this “probably completely undermines the authority of the IOC.”

Yesterday, March 19, the IOC Executive Committee, in addition to introducing a ban announced on the creation of a commission to verify each athlete from the Russian Federation and Belarus who will be admitted to the Games in a neutral status. A maximum of 54 athletes from Russia and 28 from Belarus will be able to participate in the competition. In case of victory, the athletes will be awarded to a specially prepared anthem without words and with a flag not related to the symbols of the countries.

Read about the development of Russian sports under sanctions in the Kommersant publication. “My own game”.

Laura Keffer