IOC suspends Russian Olympic Committee over Ukraine move

Mumbai – The International Olympic Committee on Thursday suspended Russia’s national Olympic body with “immediate effect” for violating the territorial integrity of Ukraine’s membership by recognising illegally annexed territories.

The move comes after the Russian Olympic Committee recognised regional organisations from four Ukrainian territories that Russian has annexed since its invasion began in 2022.

“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,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams said after the opening day of an executive board meeting in Mumbai. 

The Russian Olympic Committee responded by calling the suspension “yet another counterproductive, politically motivated decision”. 

Adams said the suspension had followed the “unilateral decision” taken by the Russian Olympic Committee on October 5 to include, as its members, the four regional sports organisations which are under the authority of Ukraine’s NOC, namely Donetsk, Kherson, Luhansk and Zaporizhzhia.

That move, he added, “violates the territorial integrity of the NOC of Ukraine, as recognised by the International Olympic Committee in accordance with the Olympic Charter”.

Adams stressed however that nothing in Thursday’s announcement had changed the IOC’s position on Russian athletes wishing to compete under a neutral flag at next year’s Paris Olympics.

Adams said the IOC still reserved the right to decide about the participation of individual neutral athletes with a Russian passport at the Paris Summer Games and 2026 Winter Games in Milan “at the appropriate time”, in accordance with a policy adopted in March.

The announcement on Thursday had no bearing on the Olympic status of Belarus, which has faced sporting sanctions for its support of the invasion of Ukraine.

The Russian Olympic Committee argued the decision had no bearing on its athletes.

“The IOC has taken yet another counterproductive, politically motivated decision,” it said. 

“Russian athletes, the majority of which are still groundlessly banned from international performances, are not affected in any way by this step.”

Ukraine welcomed the IOC’s move.

“This is an important decision, we communicated with our partners that sports cannot be beyond politics when a terrorist country commits genocide and uses athletes as propaganda,” presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak said on social media. 

In March, the IOC removed an outright ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes, allowing them to compete as neutral athletes provided they did not support the Ukraine conflict and had no ties to the military. 

Russian Olympic Committee president Stanislav Pozdnyakov labelled those conditions “a farce”.

Adams, however, made clear that Thursday’s decision was based solely on Russia’s recognition of the annexed territories, rather than Pozdnyakov’s comments.

“It is specifically about that,” he said. “Of course we’re aware about the traffic and the messages, but I think the statement speaks for itself and makes it very clear that’s why the decision was taken. 

“It was a breach of the Olympic Charter.”

Russia launched a full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.

The sports world has been divided in its response to the conflict.

Athletes from Russia and Belarus have been banned from track and field competition by World Athletics “for the foreseeable future” since Moscow’s invasion. That includes the option of competing as a neutral.

But having been barred from the 2022 Wimbledon tennis championships, Russian players were allowed to compete under a neutral banner at this year’s edition.

Highlighting the complexity of the situation, European football governing body UEFA said Tuesday it was abandoning plans to re-admit Russian Under-17 teams into next year’s youth European Championship.