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A group of 35 countries, including the United
States, Germany and Australia, will demand that Russian and
Belarusian athletes are banned from the 2024 Olympics,
Lithuania's sports minister said on Friday, deepening the
uncertainty over the Paris Games.
The move cranks up the pressure on an International Olympic
Committee (IOC) that is desperate to avoid the sporting event
being torn asunder by the conflict unfolding in Ukraine.
"This is a direct interference of ministers in the activities of
independent international sports organizations, an attempt to
dictate the conditions for the participation of athletes in
international competitions, which is absolutely unacceptable,"
Matytsin was quoted as saying by TASS.
The IOC has opened the door for Russian and Belarusian athletes
to compete as neutrals.
It has said a boycott would violate the Olympic Charter and that
its inclusion of Russians and Belarusians was based on a United
Nations resolution against discrimination within the Olympic
movement.
"Now we see an undisguised desire to destroy the unity of
international sports and the international Olympic movement, to
make sport a means of pressure to resolve political issues,"
Matytsin was quoted as saying.
The RIA Novosti news agency also reported that Matytsin
described as "humiliating" a proposal by Polish Sports Minister
Kamil Bortniczuk to create a team of refugees that would include
Russian and Belarusian dissidents.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin; Editing by Mark Potter)
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