ISU on Russia's war against Ukraine

Now the recommendations that have been in force for more than a year have been disavowed by the International Olympic Committee, but the parameters and criteria announced for the return of Russians to international competitions are absolutely unacceptable.



Neutral status is an obvious discrimination based on nationality, a violation of basic human and civil rights, which has been repeatedly pointed out over the past few months by international humanitarian experts, including UN human rights experts. It is significant that their position is almost completely ignored.

We also categorically disagree with the application of any additional doping test procedures to Russian athletes. The restrictions imposed by the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in the case of WADA v. RUSADA expired in December last year. At the moment, we are guided by the principles of the World Anti-Doping Code and consider the proposed conditions to be unreasonable, legally untenable and excessive.

As for the ban on the participation of Russians in team competitions, here, in our opinion, it is not just discrimination against athletes based on their passports, but also in the disciplines they represent. Depriving at least 30% of the representatives of our Olympic team of the opportunity to compete in qualifying and qualifying competitions without any legal basis. This approach is contrary to the Olympic Charter, the UN Charter, humanitarian, civil, and any generally accepted norms.

In this context, when we are essentially offered to agree to put an end to the dream of thousands of athletes to compete for Olympic medals, the proposed restrictions on the placement of this or that content on the social networks of Russian Olympians look like a deflection under political pressure from outside.

The position announced today on the non-admission to international competitions of Russian athletes who are registered in the military and law enforcement agencies or have contractual relations with them is no longer just another chapter in the list of gross discriminatory sanctions, which was recently stated directly by Ms. Alexandra Ksantaki, Special UN rapporteur in the field of cultural rights. We believe that this criterion lays the foundation for an internal conflict in Russian sports, aims to split the community of our athletes, divide them into “acceptable” and “other” not only on a national basis, and damage the Russian sports industry as a whole.

Thus, the current admission parameters will in no way contribute to the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate in international competitions. The decisions of the IOC Executive Board are nothing more than a farce, which is not aimed at normalizing the situation, in which the basic principles of the Olympic Charter and the UN Charter are grossly violated.

The Russian Olympic Committee will continue contacts with colleagues from Lausanne in order to obtain objective information about the destructiveness of discriminatory measures that destroy the humanitarian and unifying mission of sport.

Taking into account the fact that at the moment the IOC Executive Board has postponed the decision on the participation of our athletes in the Olympic Games, we will monitor the actions of international sports federations regarding the admission of Russians to participate in competitions.