KYIV. March 29. UNN. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki criticized the decision of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under a neutral flag. It informs UNN referring to Twitter premiere and tvn24.
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“The decision of the IOC to return Russian athletes to the competition is a scandal and a betrayal of the true spirit of sport. I instructed the Minister (of Sports and Tourism of Poland, – ed.) Kamil Bortnichuk to convey our strong objection to the leadership of the IOC. We will do everything possible to keep sports free from Russian influence “, he wrote.
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He later said that “sport is very important to create awareness” and added that the IOC’s decision was “disgraceful”.
“Unfortunately, the top leadership of the IOC made such a decision that Russian and Belarusian athletes can supposedly naturally – what does this mean, stateless people, what is the approach to the topic in general – participate in athletics competitions,” Moravetskyi said.
The prime minister added that Poland “will strongly protest” against this decision, as “this is a step towards getting used to this brutal war that Russia has launched against Ukraine, and therefore against the entire free world.” In addition, Moravetsky raised the issue of a possible boycott of the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
“Poland, of course, will not withdraw the athletes on its own. However, we will try to build a coalition of states – and this is what I recommended to Minister Bortnychuk – to together, resolutely demand that the IOC withdraw this very wrong and bad decision,” the prime minister emphasized.
We will remind
On Tuesday, March 28, the IOC held a meeting during which it postponed a decision on the admission of Russian and Belarusian athletes to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris and said that it would return to this issue later.
The day before, Ukraine, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland made a joint statement about not allowing Russian and Belarusian athletes to international sports competitions.