Chairman of the State Duma Committee for Physical Culture and Sports Dmitry Svishchev called the refusal of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to hold meetings over the participation of Russians “direct discrimination.”
In the last few hours, what the IOC has done has been to recall the rules of its Constitution in response to the formal request of the head of the Swiss Ministry of Defense, Protection of the Population and Sport, Viola Amherd, to suspend the Russian members in the IOC.
In a reaction sent to the Spanish agency EFE, the sports organization explained the Olympic Charter establishes that the members of the IOC exercise as individuals and not on behalf of their countries. Those members then act as IOC ambassadors to the organizations in their respective countries.
The IOC currently has two active members, Shamil Tarpishchev and Yelena Isinbayeva, and two honorary members, Vitaly Smirnov and Alexander Popov, who are Russian nationals.
Specialists from both that country and Belarus, which has allowed the use of its territory for the invasion of Ukraine, continue to participate in its work commissions.
On Sunday, Amherd addressed IOC President Thomas Bach with a demand to expel the Russians and Belarusians from the organization, a demand that comes on top of similar ones heard in recent weeks.
In early April, Poland’s sports minister, Kamil Bortnichuk, proposed during a speech in Luxembourg to exclude Russia from the IOC and all international sports federations.
At that time and to a question from Around The Rings about what Bortnichuk said, the IOC replied that the sports body “has made its position very clear.”
“We welcome that the vast majority of International Sports Federations are following the recommendations of the IOC,” the Olympic official commented.
After the breach of the Olympic Truce by the governments of Russia and Belarus, the IOC asked the sports federations not to allow the participation of athletes from both countries in their competitions, or to give them entry as neutrals as an alternative.
He also urged all international federations to relocate or cancel planned events in either of the two nations.
He also withdrew the Olympic Order from all people with important positions in the Russian government, including President Vladimir Putin.
The IOC has not organized and does not plan to hold any kind of event in which members from Russia will participate. But on May 20, its assembly is called to put an end to the 139th Session, which began during the Beijing Olympics last February and could not complete its agenda due to the restrictions derived from the pandemic, EFE recalled.
“Now there are no meetings and the decision to do anything without the Russians seems strange. But, in general, that IOC line of thinking is direct discrimination. Especially since the members of the IOC working bodies are individually elected,” said Dmitry Svishchev, according to RIA Novosti.
“This speaks once again of the politicization of the Olympic movement, which for some reason the IOC has embarked on. We are confident in the adequacy of the position not only of the IOC, but of all international sports organizations in the near future. Sport cannot be an instrument of pressure or politics,” Svishchev said.
Tuesday marks the 55th day since Russia began its invasion of Ukraine called by President Putin a “special military operation.” On the same day as the military action, February 24, the IOC strongly condemned the violation of the Olympic Truce, a United Nations resolution passed by consensus of all 193 U.N. member states, Russia included.