MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 01st February, 2023) The position of the 11th Olympic Summit participants on the issue of sanctions against Russian and Belarusian athletes was not unanimous, contrary to what is stated by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) said on Wednesday.
In its last week's statement "on solidarity with Ukraine," the IOC said that the 11th Olympic Summit in December 2022 had resulted in "unanimous conclusions" on sanctions regarding Russia and Belarus, though the summit's declaration read that "the vast majority of the participants" had agreed that the restrictions must remain in place. On Tuesday, the IOC again said that the sanctions had been unanimously supported at the summit and were not subject to discussion.
"In the (last week's) declaration of the Olympic summit on the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to the international arena, it is very clearly stated that the summit participants spoke unanimously for this decision. At the same time, the restrictions and sanctions proposed to the summit participants against Russia and Belarus, on the contrary, were not supported by the ROC. Let us emphasize that in this case the decision was not unanimous, opinions were divided," the ROC said on Telegram.
In this regard, the Russian committee stressed the inadmissibility of distorting information on the results of the Olympic Summit.
On January 25, the IOC Executive Committee called for the return of Russian and Belarusian athletes to international competitions in a neutral status, while proposing not to allow athletes who actively supported the special operation in Ukraine. ROC head Stanislav Pozdnyakov later said that Russians should participate in international competitions under the same conditions as all other athletes.
Many international sports organizations have banned Russian and Belarusian athletes from participating in their competitions in response to Moscow's ongoing military operation in Ukraine and Minsk's support for it. In particular, the IOC issued in late February 2022 a recommendation to the International Sports Federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from international competitions in response to the special operation in Ukraine.
