2024-03-20 18:07:10
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Wednesday that the Russian government had fallen “even lower” after Moscow accused it of “sloping into neo-Nazism”. These comments come after the IOC announced new restrictions for Russian and Belarusian athletes at the 2024 Olympics.
Published on: 03/20/2024 – 7:07 p.m. Modified on: 03/20/2024 – 8:56 p.m.
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New standoff between Moscow and the IOC. The International Olympic Committee criticized Russia for having “fallen even lower”, Wednesday March 20, a few hours after being accused by Moscow of “sloping into neo-Nazism”, the day after new restrictions forcing Russian athletes to compete Paris 2024 Olympics.
On Tuesday, the IOC announced that Russian and Belarusian athletes would not be able to parade during the opening ceremony, in the context of the assault launched against Ukraine by Russia, with the complicity of Belarus, ago more than two years.
“These decisions demonstrate the extent to which the IOC has moved away from its declared principles and has fallen into racism and neo-Nazism,” insisted Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova.
Russia justifies its assault on kyiv with unfounded accusations of “Nazism” against Ukrainian leaders acting with the supposed complicity of the West.
In an increasingly tense climate in recent hours between the two parties, the response from the International Olympic Committee was quick. “This goes beyond anything that is acceptable,” Mark Adams, spokesperson for the head of the IOC, the German Thomas Bach, told the press. “By linking the president, his nationality and the Holocaust,” the Russian government “falls even lower.”
Questioned in the morning, Thomas Bach did not directly respond due to the “extremely aggressive” and “also very personal” nature of these accusations.
“Politicizing sport”
On Tuesday, the IOC had in a first salvo accused Russia of “politicizing sport”, criticisms formulated while Moscow aims to organize a competition competing with the Olympics, the Friendship Games.
The Kremlin and Russian diplomacy, always quick to see any restriction as “Russophobia”, did not temper their response. Believing that the IOC was preparing to sanction foreign athletes wanting to go to the Friendship Games, the spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched into a particularly virulent indictment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and IOC President Thomas Bach discuss during the European Games in Minsk, Belarus, June 30, 2019. © Sergei Bobylyov, AFP
She accused the IOC on Wednesday of seeking to intimidate athletes wishing to participate in future Friendship Games, as the Committee’s Olympic Solidarity director, James Macleod, did not rule out the possibility of sanctions. “This is intimidation of athletes. And it completely undermines the authority of the IOC,” said Dmitri Peskov, spokesperson for the Russian president.
The Committee has considerably hardened its tone against the “Friendship Games” which should be held in September in Russia, describing them as an event with “purely political motivation” and a “cynical attempt” to exploit athletes “for purposes of political propaganda.
Excluded from the Olympics as a state, sanctioned by the West, Russia is trying to create alternative economic, political and sporting events with allies.
12 Russians and 7 Belarusians
The ban on Russians and Belarusians from parading in Paris is in addition to their obligation to participate under a neutral banner, and on condition of not having openly supported the offensive against Ukraine.
“The IOC’s decisions are illegal, unjust and unacceptable. We are scandalized by (these) unprecedented discriminatory conditions,” declared the spokesperson for Russian diplomacy.
“It is the destruction of the ideal of Olympism,” said the Kremlin.
Meeting of the IOC Executive Committee chaired by Thomas Bach on March 19, 2024 in Lausanne, Switzerland. © Fabrice Coffrini, AFP
Stripped of their national colors, the athletes from the two countries should be few in number: only 12 Russians and 7 Belarusians have so far qualified, out of the 6,000 tickets already allocated, explained James Macleod.
Experts from the Olympic body project, “according to the most likely scenario”, that 36 Russians and 22 Belarusians will overcome the qualification obstacle. But they will still have to submit to a “review committee”, which requires in particular that they did not actively support the Russian assault on Ukraine.
The IOC also recalled on Tuesday “the total lack of respect for global anti-doping standards” demonstrated by Moscow in the past, the authorities having orchestrated for years a state doping system which culminated during the 2014 Olympic Games in Sochi, which led to Russia being sanctioned at the Tokyo Games in 2021 and Beijing in 2022.
So far, Russia is not planning a protest boycott of the Olympics, the Minister of Sports indicated in mid-March. But the formal decision has not yet been made and the ongoing verbal escalation could well make her change her mind.
With AFP
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