The International Olympic Committee estimated on Wednesday that the Russian government had fallen “even lower” by accusing the organization of “sloping into racism and neo-Nazism”, due to the restrictions imposed on Russian athletes for the 2024 Olympics.
“This goes beyond anything that is acceptable,” Mark Adams, the spokesperson for the IOC president, the German Thomas Bach, told the press. “By linking the president, his nationality and the Holocaust (the Russian government) falls even lower. That’s all we have to say,” he said.
Asked about a series of Russian statements in the morning, Thomas Bach preferred to let Mark Adams respond because of the “extremely aggressive” and “also very personal” nature of some of these accusations. The Kremlin and Russian diplomacy were reacting to double news: the offensive launched Tuesday by the IOC against the Russian “Friendship Games”, a new competition planned for September and accused of “politicizing sport”, and the ban made to Russian and Belarusian athletes under neutral banners to parade during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Olympic Games on July 26 in Paris.
“These decisions demonstrate the extent to which the IOC has moved away from its declared principles and has fallen into racism and neo-Nazism,” said Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The Kremlin also accused the IOC on Wednesday of seeking to intimidate athletes wishing to participate in future Friendship Games, as the Committee’s director of Olympic Solidarity, James Macleod, did not rule out the possibility of sanctions. “It’s intimidation of athletes. And this completely undermines the authority of the IOC,” said Dmitri Peskov, spokesperson for the Russian president.
