Assistant to the President of the Russian Federation Igor Levitin at the X International Sports Forum “Russia – a sports powerhouse” stressed that Russia does not intend to close itself to other countries and invites all athletes to participate in various competitions.
The opening ceremony was also attended by the Minister of Sports of the Russian Federation Oleg Matytsin Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Siberian Federal District Anatoly Seryshev and Governor of the Kemerovo region Sergey Tsivilev.
– I want to continue the topic that was raised by (Minister of Sports) Oleg Matytsin. What is the Olympic Movement? These are Olympic sports. When I ask (the reps) for non-Olympic sports that gave you recommendations (to eliminate the Russians), they shrug their shoulders. We in the world have not even decided what the Olympic movement is. Is everything sporty? Or just Olympic sports?
The chaos taking hold in the world has brought the problem of international sports management into such sharp focus that these officials have realized that they are “hitting”, but they cannot get out of the situation. And the discussion should be about this topic. Should folk sports that have no place in the Olympics be subject to sanctions?
The president has already said that Russia will not shut down. We invite all athletes, none of them will be banned from entering Russia. Here, Karyakin does not receive a visa for Norway. Why? Because he has a Russian passport. So in these countries competitions must be banned. Athletes must be equal. And that is state intervention in the affairs of sport. It’s not the IOC that doesn’t issue visas, this state doesn’t. The Polish national team refused to come to Russia. But we were credited with the loss. Why? After all, they refused to go. At the same time, in other sports where there is a conflict between Israel and Muslim states, those who do not come to Israel are counted as losers.
In my opinion, what is happening is a pure violation of the commandments of Coubertin, which he spoke of. And we must not deviate from these commandments. It will be a mistake to go in blocks. We must adhere to the Olympic Charter that sport is outside of politics. And you shouldn’t get into this discussion any further,” Levitin said.
Source : MatchTV
