The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has approved the participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in the 2024 Olympic Games, and Russian President Vladimir Putin believes the forum risks “burying the Olympic movement” with the proposed conditions.

>> The federation that does not welcome Russians and Belarusians to the 2024 Olympics: “We do not accept their presence under any conditions”

Vladimir Putin said that he will carefully analyze the conditions that the IOC has put forward for Russian athletes

Russians and Belarusians were initially banned from international competition following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but will now be allowed to compete “neutrally, without flags, emblems or anthems”.

Vladimir Putin said he wanted to “thoroughly analyze the conditions” before making a final decision on whether Russian athletes would participate or boycott the Paris Games.

“Everything that international sports officials do in relation to Russian sports is a complete contradiction and distortion of Pierre de Coubertin’s ideas. If they act in the same way, they will bury the Olympic movement.

(The athletes) have been training for years, so we have supported our athletes to go to such competitions, but we still need to carefully analyze the conditions proposed by the IOC.

If these artificial conditions of the IOC are created in order to eliminate the best Russian athletes in order to show at the Olympics that Russian sports are dying, then you should decide whether you want to go there. Vladimir Putinin Moscow, at his first important press conference after the start of the war in Ukraine.

The IOC said neutral athletes would only compete in individual sports and no teams from two countries would be allowed. Athletes who actively support the war in Ukraine, as well as those who have contracts with the Russian or Belarusian military, are not allowed. Russia has strongly protested the restrictions on its athletes, saying they go against the spirit of the Games.

Previously, Russian athletes participated in the Olympics without their flag or anthem after major doping scandals.

During the Cold War, the United States boycotted the 1980 Moscow Olympics due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the USSR and its allies retaliated by boycotting the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Romania did not join the Soviet boycott and participated in the 1984 Olympic Games, writes Agerpres.

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