Russia has already killed 760 Ukrainian athletes and coaches, yet IOC is easing restrictions on Russia, - Bidnyi
Since the start of the full-scale war, Russia has killed 760 Ukrainian athletes and coaches. Meanwhile, the International Olympic Committee has lifted the restrictions on Russian athletes, recognising that the grounds for the sanctions no longer apply.
According to Censor.NET, this was stated by Matvii Bidnyi, Ukraine’s Minister for Youth and Sport.
According to the minister, on 7 July the IOC decided to lift the restrictions on Russian athletes, on the grounds that Russia had allegedly rectified the breaches that had previously led to the sanctions being imposed.
Bidnyi claims that, in fact, the Russian side resorted to legal manipulation. In particular, the Russian Olympic Committee removed the category of ‘regional councils’ from its statutes, which meant that not only the four temporarily occupied Ukrainian regions but also all 85 regions of the Russian Federation itself were automatically excluded from the structure.
"This was done solely to ensure that our regions would be automatically excluded from the structure. After all, the selective removal of Ukrainian regions alone would be perceived within Russia itself as an admission that these territories do not belong to them," the minister explained.
He emphasised that formal amendments to the charter do not alter the substance of the matter: Russia is continuing its war against Ukraine and continues to use sport as a tool of state propaganda, particularly in the temporarily occupied territories.
According to Bidnyi, Ukraine continues to gather evidence of such manipulation and pass it on to the IOC, international sports federations and partners, in order to ensure that pressure remains on Russian sport and to honour the memory of the Ukrainian athletes who lost their lives.
