Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Monday, in a decree, that he would not organize his Friendship Games, which were supposed to compete with the Olympic Games and which were initially planned for this year.
Relations between Moscow and world sporting bodies have been consumed for several years by a multitude of conflicts, between state doping scandal in Russia and verbal escalations, espousing geopolitical tensions. They have been polar with the IOC since the start of the invasion in Ukraine in February 2022.
“In order to defend the rights of athletes and sports organizations to free access to international sporting activities,” Mr. Putin ordered to “postpone until a special decision” the holding of the World Friendship Games, according to this published decree on the official website of Russian government legal documents.
The Russian president had ordered a year ago to organize these Games which he praised as an alternative to the Olympic Games, in the context of the offensive in Ukraine which led to a shower of Western sanctions against Moscow, and which were planned in September in Moscow and Yekaterinburg, in the Urals.
However, they never took place, without any official explanation being provided by the authorities.
Russia, banned from world sport for its assault on Ukraine, was excluded as a nation from the Olympic Games this summer in Paris and was represented by only a small team of 15 athletes, competing under a neutral banner, after a very strict selection.
Athletes authorized to compete had to have shown that they had not supported the Russian military intervention in Ukraine and that they did not belong to a sports club linked to the armed or security forces, as is sometimes the case. case in Russia.
Deprived of their flag and anthem in the French capital, many Russian athletes had chosen to give up competitions, denouncing “discriminatory” criteria.
The IOC had accused Russia before the Paris Olympics of “politicizing” sport, and saw in the potential organization of the Friendship Games “a cynical attempt” to exploit athletes “for political propaganda purposes”.
