Russia’s sports minister Oleg Matycin has said his country is not completely isolated despite a series of sanctions by various federations. He revealed that officials of his office will work on the development of competitions in the country, to which the Russians will invite athletes from different countries.
The International Olympic Committee has recommended that all sports organizations exclude Russian and Belarusian athletes from their events, which has also happened in most cases. The International Paralympic Committee, which first allowed the Russians and Belarusians to start without an anthem and under a neutral flag, but withdrew from the plan due to an impending boycott by other states, eventually resorted to this step.
In response, Minister Matycin said that Russia had not been completely isolated despite all the efforts of some federations. “In the near future, a program will be developed for a system of competitions in the Russian Federation with the participation of the maximum number of foreign athletes,” he told TASS.
Foreign athletes mean mainly Belarusians, athletes from the countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States and the BRICS grouping, ie Brazil, India, China and South Africa. “We are not isolated, we continue to contact international federations. We hope that these are temporary measures and that reason will prevail and that the entire international community will understand that the divide that is now taking place is unacceptable, “Matycin continued.
The Russian Athletes’ Union has previously called anti-Russian sanctions a sports genocide against athletes from the country.
