We need to think about victims of the regime as well – Macron on allowing Russians to participate in Olympics

French President Emmanuel Macron has stated that "there will be no Russian flag at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris", but nevertheless believes the participation of some Russian athletes must be considered.

Source: Macron in an interview for a French sports newspaper L'Équipe, cited by RFI and European Pravda

To the question about possible presence of some Russian athletes at the 2024 Olympics Macron replied: "It is not up to a host country to decide what the International Olympic Committee must do (…) I completely trust Thomas Bach, the President of the International Olympic Committee."

Macron also expressed his hope that "Ukrainians will be involved in this deliberation".

"The real issue the Olympic world must decide on is the status of the Russian athletes, who have been preparing their whole lifes for this, and, maybe, are also the victims of this regime," he continued.

He was also asked how to distinguish between Russian athletes who support Putin’s regime and its real victims.

"Now this is the real question, and here the Olympic world must, honestly, express its opinion and provide guarantees," Macron explained. "And this must be comprehensible for Ukrainians (…) This is the balance we must achieve."

On 28 March 2023, the executive committee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) recommended International Sports Federations to allow Russian and Belarusian athletes to participate, but gave a number of conditions.

One of the main conditions is that the athletes with Russian or Belarusian passports must only participate as neutral individual athletes.

Moreover, the athletes and personnel who actively support the war cannot participate, namely the athletes representing the army or other state security institutions of Russia, as well as those who have publicly supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

It should be noted that these are recommendations, while the final decisions will be made by the federations of separate sports.

Earlier, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki criticised this decision. He considers it a scandal and a betrayal of the real sports spirit.

Before that, Nancy Faeser, Minister of Internal Affairs of Germany, condemned the IOC decision and called it a "slap in the face for Ukrainian athletes".

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