In a decree announced this Monday, December 2, 2024, Vladimir Putin gave up the project he intended to carry out to compete with the Olympic Games.
It is via a decree that Vladimir Putin has given up organizing this event which was to compete the Olympic Games, this Monday, December 2, 2024.
The Friendship Games
The Russian president announced Monday that he indeed gave up organizing its Friendship Games supposed to compete with the Olympic Games and which were initially planned for this year. Relations between Moscow and world sports 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 from the start of the invasion in Ukraine in February 2022.
Originally scheduled for September
“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 decree published on the official website of legal documents of the Russian government. The Russian president ordered a year ago to organize these Games which he praised as an alternative at 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 for September in Moscow and Ekaterinburg, 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 Olympics this summer in Paris and was only represented by a small team of 15 athletes, competing under a neutral banner, after a very strict selection. Athletes authorized to compete must have shown that they did not support 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 in Russia.
The IOC’s response
Deprived of their flag and anthem in the French capital, many Russian athletes had chose to give up competitionsdenouncing “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”.
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