“That is what the ignorant IOC wants to put under a white flag to allow them to participate,” the minister lashed out.
According to the Russian Ministry of Defense website dedicated to CSKA, the club had about 10,000 graduates in 2020, and had won 1,399 medals in Olympic history.
Russia is also not satisfied
But the position of the IOC, which would facilitate the entry of Russians and Belarusians into the pre-Olympic tournaments that will proliferate this year – if they do not do so, they would stay out of Paris 2024 even if the war had ended by then – has not been liked in Russia either, for the conditions imposed for their return.
The main one is that the athletes “have not actively supported the war in Ukraine.”
Russian Sports Minister Oleg Matitsin called this requirement “inadmissible”. “Politics cannot and should not be mixed with sports,” he said.
“For our athletes, representing the country is an honor and a source of pride. It has always been like that,” he stressed.
“If any Russian demonstrates against the special operation, against defending their homeland, they will be traitors. Let them do it, but after they leave Russia, their homeland,” said Alexandr Tikhonov, a four-time Olympic biathlon champion between 1968 and 1980. .
The president of the Russian Olympic Committee (COR), Stanislav Pozdniakov, said that they are “categorically against any limitation, additional demand or sanction that incumbents on the citizenship of athletes.”
“The priority remains the same, to guarantee the rights and interests of our athletes. On equal terms, without discrimination,” he stressed.
Olympic champion speed skater Svetlana Zhúrova wondered: “What do they want? For some of the guys training in Russia to turn their backs on the special military operation and not support it? It’s something I can’t even imagine.”
With information from AFP and EFE
