the IOC toughens its tone against the Kremlin, Russian and Belarusian athletes will not parade during the opening ceremony – Libération

Meeting in Lausanne, members of the International Olympic Committee announced the non-participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games. Thomas Bach, the president of the body, also accused Russia of “politicizing sport”.

We will not see Russian and Belarusian athletes sailing on the waters of the Seine. Not even under a neutral banner. This Tuesday, March 19, the IOC once again raised its tone towards the Kremlin by announcing that Russian and Belarusian athletes “will not parade at the opening ceremony” of the Paris Olympic Games which is to be held on July 26. The question was examined this Tuesday by the executive commission of the sporting body. Against the backdrop of the announcement, earlier today, of Russia’s launch of the “Friendship Games” in Moscow and Yekaterinburg next September, a new competition competing with the Olympics which also plans an edition in two years winter in Sochi. The Lausanne-based organization accused Vladimir Putin’s country of “politicizing sport.”

In A declaration published this Tuesday, the IOC, which authorizes the presence of Russian athletes at the next Paris Olympics only under a neutral banner and on the condition that they have not supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine, asked the sporting world and to governments invited by Moscow “to reject all participation and all support” in this event. These two Kremlin initiatives are in addition to the “Games of the Future” organized in Kazan from February 21 to March 3, an event which mixed traditional disciplines and e-sport. The capital of Tatarstan is also due to host the “BRICS Games” (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) from June 12 to 23, which will bring together “athletes from more than 50 countries”, according to the Russian authorities.

“In order to make their purely political motivation even more obvious, the latter deliberately bypass the sports organizations of their target countries,” underlines the body in its declaration, which sees a “cynical attempt” to exploit the athletes “for purposes “political propaganda”, in violation of the Olympic Charter. Furthermore, the IOC accuses Moscow of “a total lack of respect for global anti-doping standards and the integrity of competitions”, recalling the concerns expressed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) about the Games. friendship, an event devoid of an anti-doping program, the seriousness of which the Montreal-based organization could have attested to. Russia remains at the heart of the biggest institutionalized cheating in recent sporting history, which culminated during the 2014 Sochi Olympics and resulted in the country seeing its anthem and official colors banned from the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 and then of the Beijing Winter Games in 2022.

During an interview with the newspaper The world this Tuesday, IOC President Thomas Bach denounced “the aggressiveness of the Russian government” which “is growing day by day, against the IOC, against the Games” and against his person. “It goes from ‘fascist’ to ‘destroyer of the Games and the Olympic movement.’ And this all comes from Russian officials. I don’t know if it comes from Vladimir Putin himself, I don’t look at Telegram every day, I’m not that masochistic, but the attacks come from all levels…” he assured.

“No exchange with the Russian Olympic committee”

For years, the IOC and Moscow have maintained frosty relations, accusing each other of using sport for political purposes. The decision adopted late Tuesday afternoon in Lausanne rules out the prospect of any short-term rapprochement. However, on Wednesday March 13, Oleg Matytsin, the Russian Minister of Sports, considered that it was not necessary to “boycott” the Paris Games this summer, preferring to “preserve the possibility of dialogue and participation in competitions”.

Not enough to warm up relations with the IOC which nevertheless made a clarification: “We are intransigent when it comes to punishing those who have violated the Olympic Charter. But I am just as uncompromising in protecting those who have not violated the Charter. It is a commitment to human rights and to defending the principle that there can be no collective guilt,” expressed Thomas Bach. He further added that “athletes cannot be held responsible for the actions of their government. If they support these acts, they are punished. But if this is not the case, they must have the same rights as others.”

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron certified on Sunday March 17 in an interview with the Ukrainian channel 1+1 that a ceasefire in Ukraine “will be requested” from Russia on the occasion of the holding of the Games, in application of the Olympic truce adopted at the end of last November by the United Nations General Assembly after heated debates. At the UN, the Russian representative notably considered that the IOC’s choice to deprive Russian athletes of their official colors was “a politicized, discriminatory and hypocritical decision”.