Russia planning own international sporting events after ‘unacceptable’ sanctions – minister
Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin has said the country is not isolated despite a series of “unacceptable” sanctions from various federations, and that officials would work on developing competitions in Russia which invite international athletes.
Russia was hit was another sporting ban on Thursday when the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes would be barred from the 2022 Beijing Winter Games, despite clearing them to compete as neutrals just one day previously.
The IPC had resisted an earlier recommendation from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to bar all Russian and Belarusian athletes from global competitions, but relented after coming under the threat of boycotts from rival nations while also citing the “influence of governments” as it announced the ban.
Hitting back, Russian Sports Minister Matytsin said Russia was not fully isolated despite the best efforts of some federations.
“In the near future, a program will be developed for a system of competitions on the territory of the Russian Federation with the participation of the maximum number of foreign athletes,” said Matytsin, according to TASS.
“First of all, Belarusian athletes, [and] a system of competitions with the CIS [Commonwealth of Independent States], SOC [Shanghai Cooperation Organization], and BRICS [Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa].
“We are not isolated, we continue contact with international federations. We hope that these are temporary measures and that reason will prevail, and the entire international community will understand that the split that is happening now is unacceptable.
“Sport should act as one of the conductors of diplomacy and the restoration of human values,” Matytsin added.
Elsewhere, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) issued its response to the recent swathe of sporting sanctions, stressing that the bans “grossly violate the principles of the International Olympic Movement.”
“Russian athletes are discriminated against on the basis of nationality and citizenship… Paradoxically, the IOC, in its decision of February 28, 2022, explicitly stated that the punishment of innocent athletes is unfair and that the IOC allegedly stands for fair competition without any discrimination,” the statement read.
“As a result of the decisions taken, thousands of Russian athletes are currently deprived of the opportunity to participate in international competitions simply because they are citizens of the Russian Federation.”
The ROC’s Athletes’ Commission has gone as far as to call the anti-Russian sanctions a “sporting genocide” against sportsmen and women from the country.
