The International Olympic Committee suspended the Russian National Olympic Committee on Thursday October 12 “with immediate effect” for having “unilaterally” placed under its authority four occupied Ukrainian regional organizations: Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia. According to the IOC, this decision has no consequences on the possible presence of Russian athletes under a neutral banner at the Paris Olympics, which will be decided by the IOC “at the appropriate time”. It nevertheless deprives the Russian body of Olympic funding. For the Olympic organization, it is a question of sanctioning the “violation” by the Russians of the “territorial integrity” of the Ukrainian Olympic committee, and therefore of the Olympic Charter, its spokesperson clarified.
A decision denounced by Russia as “political” and “counterproductive”, and welcomed on the contrary by Ukraine. “Sport cannot be separated from politics when a terrorist country commits genocide against Ukraine and uses athletes as propaganda,” declared the head of the Ukrainian presidency, Andrii Iermak.
The UN continues to monitor human rights in Russia
The UN Human Rights Council on Thursday extended the mandate of the rapporteur on human rights violations in Russia for another year, inflicting a second diplomatic defeat on Moscow in less than a week. The resolution was presented and then supported by many European countries. Already on Tuesday, during a vote at the UN General Assembly in New York, Russia failed in its attempt to regain a seat on the Human Rights Council, from which it had been excluded after its invasion of Ukraine. Lucy McKernan, deputy director of the Geneva office of Human Rights Watch, stressed that this was, in addition to the vote in the General Assembly, “an important victory for human rights and Russian civil society.” .
The resolution highlights “the significant and persistent deterioration of the human rights situation” in Russia and that the Council is particularly concerned “by reports that critics of the government are subject to extrajudicial executions and by the draconian restrictions imposed on rights and freedoms. On September 22, presenting the conclusions of her first report, Mariana Katzarova deplored the “enormous repression” in Russia against critical voices since the outbreak of war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Russia is asked to “ communicate constructively” and “cooperate fully” with the expert and grant her full access to her territory, which she has so far refused to do.
Capping Russian oil: Washington applies the first sanctions
The United States announced the first economic sanctions on Thursday, targeting two companies, Lumber Marine SA and Ice Pearl Navigation Corp, for non-compliance with the ceiling on the price of Russian oil. This mechanism was imposed almost a year ago by a coalition of Western countries, including the United States, France, Germany and Canada.
Two ships transported Russian oil at a price higher than $60 per barrel, the US Treasury Department says. These two tankers, now considered “blocked properties” by Washington, “used service providers based in the United States to transport oil of Russian origin”, it is specified. Consequently, these two companies are targeted by these economic sanctions, which block their assets in the United States, and prevent them from having commercial activity there. Russian oil tax revenues fell by 45% between January and August of this year, compared to 2022, assures a press release also published Thursday by the coalition countries.
Damage to the gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea, Russia suspected?
Finland said it could not rule out the possibility that a “state actor” was behind damage to a gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea on Sunday, amid what its national security intelligence service called “significantly deteriorated” relations with Russia. Finnish investigators said Wednesday they found marks on the seabed at the scene of the damage, which they had reason to suspect was caused by “an external force” that “appears to have been mechanical and not an explosion.”
“Who is behind this is a matter for preliminary investigation. We are not commenting in further detail,” the security service director continued on Thursday. The rupture, which came almost exactly a year after a series of explosions tore apart three of the four Nord Stream pipelines carrying Russian gas to Western Europe, has sparked new concerns about regional energy security and sent a surge gas prices.