On Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee appealed to the countries belonging to the Olympic movement not to send their athletes to the event organized by Russia.
The distance between Russian political decision-makers and the leadership of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) is getting tighter as the Paris Olympics approach.
In a press release published on Tuesday, the IOC board strongly condemned the Friendship Games planned by Russia, which are to be held in September this year in Moscow and Yekaterinburg.
According to the IOC, the event goes against the basic principles of the Olympic movement.
– Russia has started a very intensive campaign. State delegations, ambassadors, and ministry and state officials have approached state governments around the world, the IOC press release said.
The IOC Athletes’ Commission expressed its concern that the administrations of some countries may pressure their athletes to participate in the Russian Games.
The international umbrella organization described Russia’s actions as a cynical attempt to politicize sports and called on the stakeholders of the Olympic movement and the governments of the countries not to support the alternative games of the Eastern superpower.
Russia’s political leadership reacted quickly to the IOC’s exit.
– This is presumptuous and an indication of the impasse the IOC has driven itself into when it has given in to Russophobia, a representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Zakharova commented by numerous according to Russian media.
Declared the winner of the Russian presidential election at the weekend Vladimir Putin previously accused the IOC of destroying the principles of the Olympic movement and international sports.
An event promoted by Putin
The Friendship Games is an alternative event organized by the Russian political leadership to the summer Olympics, in which Russian and Belarusian athletes are allowed to participate in a very limited way.
According to the Russian organizers, 35 sports will be competed in the Friendship Games. Head of the Games Organizing Committee Alexey Sorokin said the state channel For Match TVthat currently athletes from around 30 countries would be coming to the event.
According to Sorokin, there would also be European athletes in the group, but he did not want to make the names public.
Putin’s administration has promised the medalists of the Friendship Games the same prize money that is usually paid to Russian Olympic medalists. Prize money has also been promised to the foreign medalists of the Friendship Games.
Hand-wringing on many fronts
The International Olympic Committee has enough to worry about before the Paris Olympics, which begin at the end of July. The issue of so-called neutral athletes has also caused friction between the IOC and Russian decision-makers.
At the end of last year, the IOC decided that Russian and Belarusian athletes who pass the Olympic qualifications for their sports can participate in the Paris Games with the status of Individual Neutral Athlete. Entry to the Games requires, among other things, that the athlete does not publicly support Russia’s war in Ukraine or is a member of his country’s military or security apparatus.
The terms of participation have aroused strong feelings in both the Ukrainian and Russian camps.
Read more: Olympic champion raised funds for war-torn Russian army, but is going to the Paris Games as a neutral athlete
Several Russian sports bosses, such as the president of the country’s Olympic Committee Stanislav Pozdnyakov have found the conditions of participation humiliating. In particular, the ban on supporting Russia’s war has been a threshold issue for many decision-makers.
However, Russian decision-makers have not directly banned athletes from participating in the Paris Games.