“Stained in blood”: Selinsky does not agree with IOC President Bach’s plan for Russia

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Selinsky does not agree with IOC President Bach’s plan for Russia

01/27/2023 10:01 PM

So far, Russian and Belarusian athletes have been banned from most competitions due to the war of aggression against Ukraine. But IOC President Bach wants to give them the opportunity to participate in the 2024 Olympics. The Ukrainian president cannot understand this and confronts him with an unpleasant travel offer.

Volodymyr Zelensky’s response wasn’t far off – and left nothing to be desired in terms of clarity. “I invite Mr. Bach to Bachmut, where he sees for himself that neutrality does not exist,” the French news agency quoted the Ukrainian president as saying. Bloodstained.”

Thomas Bach and the IOC, which he leads, had previously announced their readiness for the return of Russian athletes to world sports. Bach consolidated this position on the sidelines of the World Bobsled Championships in Oberhof. “Excluding athletes because of their passport is not consistent with the values ​​and mission of the Olympic Charter,” Bach said. It is “possible” that “Russian and Belarusian athletes will start under a neutral flag” at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Impossible “not to be disappointed”

Zelensky replied that it was impossible “not to be disappointed with the position of the IOC president”. He spoke to Bach “more than once” and was never able to see “how he wanted to protect sport from wartime propaganda by allowing Russian athletes to compete at the international level.”

According to Bach, a possible boycott of Ukraine’s Olympic Games in Paris, as Ukrainian Sports Minister Wadym Hotzagat threatened on Thursday, “will not be in line with our mission. We know Ukraine’s point of view, which does not just want to isolate Russia,” said the 69-year-old.

Interruption: Bach Shock. The West boycotted Moscow in 1980, and the Eastern Bloc boycotted Los Angeles four years later. Bach decided at the time, that sport must be completely neutral “so that it can survive, to be able to do justice to its function as a bridge-builder, but it cannot be apolitical”.

‘completely wrong way’

The bridges between Russia and Ukraine no longer exist, they have been bombed – like many venues, halls and training facilities in Ukraine, and therefore the basis for peaceful and fair competition. The Russian system with Bach’s former partner Vladimir Putin is responsible for this. This is also aware of the International Olympic Committee, which strongly condemned the invasion of the Russian army on February 24, just three days after the closing ceremony of the 2022 Winter Games, and recommended sanctions.

This has been pushing the reintegration of Russian and Belarusian athletes for months. Subject to conditions as “neutral athletes” with the guarantee of rejection of the atrocities committed by their leaders. “Unacceptable to our country,” Hatzaget said – and the allies know on his side. Among them: Federal Minister of the Interior Nancy Visser. In the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” she spoke of the “completely wrong path” the IOC was taking.

Weser demanded, “Sport must be clear in its condemnation of the brutal war that Putin is waging against the Ukrainian civilian population. International sports federations remain responsible for clearly positioning themselves.” The IOC waived this responsibility, stating that the “overwhelming majority” supported a return under “strict conditions”.

“War of Brutal Aggression”

This also includes the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), which champions the global sport’s mission of “bringing people together in peaceful competition”. With the necessary sanctions, with an effective anti-doping regime and clear neutrality of Russian and Belarusian athletes and their distance from the war – but as soon as possible, since the start of qualifications for Paris 2024.

“We’re not at that point yet,” Maximilian Klein of the independent Athlete Deutschland told ZDF’s Morgenmagazine. Klein said the plan comes “at the wrong time. Russia continues its brutal war of aggression and intensifies its attacks on the Ukrainian civilian population. That is why we cannot talk about allowing Russian athletes again.”