“Ethnic discrimination” is used against Russian athletes. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the plenary session of the sports forum “Russia – a sports power”, which takes place in Perm.
The Russian leader accused the International Olympic Committee (IOC) of racist and ethnic discrimination.
“Thanks to some leaders of the modern International Olympic Committee, we learned that an invitation to the Games is not an unconditional right of the best athletes, but a kind of privilege,” Putin said, a transcript available on the Kremlin website. He added that “you can earn it not by sports results, but by some political gestures that have nothing to do with sports at all.” At the same time, some sports officials simply arrogated to themselves the right to determine who is covered by the Olympic Charter and who is not. According to V. Putin, such approaches contradict the very nature of sport.
The leader of the Russian Federation emphasized that “the Games themselves can be used as a tool of political pressure against people who have nothing to do with politics, and as crude and actually racist, ethnic discrimination.”
Putin also called sport an unconditional state priority for Russia, noting that the authorities are aiming for 70% of Russians to play sports by 2030.
Let us recall that in March 2022, the IOC recommended that international sports federations exclude Russians and Belarusians from tournaments; a year later, the committee agreed to allow them to international competitions in a neutral status. Recently, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee due to the inclusion in its composition of the Olympic Councils of the DPR and LPR, as well as the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions.
Source: Rosbalt
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