Russian luger Roman Repilov spoke about the restrictions on communication with Ukrainian athletes at the Beijing Olympics. His words are quoted by Match TV.
“We were asked to ‘not hug’ and ‘not kiss’ Ukrainian athletes,” the Russian said. He noted that such measures were aimed at ensuring that the Ukrainian Olympians did not have problems with the leadership due to close attention to the countries.
On February 16, Ukrainian freestyler Alexander Abramenko won silver in acrobatics. The third in this type of program was the Russian Ilya Burov, who, after the announcement of the results, decided to hug his friend and congratulate him on the award, which the Ukrainian did not resist. Joint photos of the freestylers quickly spread online, and the behavior of the athletes was noted by the head of the International Olympic Committee, Thomas Bach. “This is symbolism in our difficult times. We are trying to keep tensions in the political arena out of our hearts,” he said.
On January 21, the Ministry of Sports of Ukraine advised the athletes to refuse interviews in Russian. Also, athletes from Ukraine were forbidden to be photographed with the Russians.
Source: Lenta
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