Ukraine: Lifting Russia's Olympic ban is a pressure release valve for Putin

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Ukraine’s sports chief slammed the International Olympic Committee for ushering Russian athletes back into the fold even as Moscow continues to wage its war on Ukraine.

The IOC announced last week it had “provisionally lifted the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee,” ending a ban that has been in place since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in the winter of 2022 and paving the way for Russian athletes to return to the Games.

Ukrainian Sports Minister Matviy Bidnyi said in an interview that the IOC is “effectively functioning as a pressure release valve” for Russia.

“Why now? I have no answer on this question. I can’t see any reason for it,” said Bidnyi, a former bodybuilder. “Undermining the collective pressure that the international community has been building against the aggressor … it’s not a very honorable role for this organization.”

The IOC said that the reversal did not represent any change in its view of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which it still condemns. However, it said the ban was relaxed because the Russian committee removed regional sports organizations ​from Russia-occupied Ukrainian territories from its membership, which was the reason it was sanctioned.

Bidnyi said the IOC had fallen for a “primitive legal trick” and that Russia had simply restructured its Olympic committee to circumvent the IOC’s ban.

“We do not believe the IOC fails to understand this,” he said. “This is a deliberate decision to ignore reality, which completely ruins their own credibility.”

Moscow has repeatedly used international sport to maintain a foothold in Western institutions despite its broader diplomatic isolation since the war in Ukraine began. That has included influencing the world of chess , international fencing and lobbying for the gradual return of Russian athletes to global competitions .

European sport ministers have also reacted with anger to the IOC’s decision, with ministers from nine countries — Sweden, Estonia, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Finland and Denmark — calling for the EU to cut funding for the Olympics.

Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal told POLITICO in a statement that sport and politics cannot be separated, as “Russia continues to use sport as an instrument of state propaganda.”

“We should not pretend that sport exists in a vacuum separate from the brutal, ongoing war,” he said. “A return to business as usual would send the wrong message: It would disregard the suffering of the Ukrainian people and risk normalising Russia’s aggression.”

The IOC has not yet decided on whether the Russian flag and national anthem will be allowed at future Olympic events, including the Los Angeles Summer Olympics in 2028.

But Bidnyi said the IOC’s decision had already encouraged other sports governing bodies, such as the International Handball Federation, to relax their bans on Russian athletes.

“We can see the consequences of it [the IOC’s decision],” he said. “Our diplomatic work became much more difficult.”