IOC suspends Russian Olympic Committee over inclusion of bodies from occupied territories

The International Olympic Committee suspended the work of the Russian Olympic Committee due to the fact that it included Olympic bodies from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the official page of the IOC announced on X (Twitter).

The message states that the decision of the Russian Olympic Committee to include in its composition regional sports organizations subordinate to the National Olympic Committee of Ukraine violates the territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine, recognized by the International Olympic Committee in accordance with the Olympic Charter.

These are regional sports organizations of the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhya oblasts.

Because of this, the IOC executive committee suspended the Russian Olympic Committee "until further notice."

The document states that the decision has the following consequences:

- The Russian Olympic Committee is no longer entitled to operate as a National Olympic Committee, as defined in the Olympic Charter, and cannot receive any funding from the Olympic Movement.

The IOC also announced that it has not yet made a decision regarding the participation of Russian athletes in a neutral status at the 2024 and 2026 Olympics.

On February 20, 2023, the governments of 34 countries appealed to the IOC not to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete at the Olympics.

On March 28, the IOC, led by its president Thomas Bach, proposed to admit athletes from Russia and Belarus to international competitions in a neutral status. This caused outrage in Ukraine and most Western countries. A few days later, Bach said that "governments should not decide which athletes are allowed to compete."

On June 26, the IOC invited 203 countries to the Olympics in Paris, excluding Russia and Belarus from the list.