RIGA, May 25. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy in Latvia blasted the local authorities’ decision in Riga to replace the country’s national flag in the streets of Riga with the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), while the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship is already in progress, the Russian diplomatic body announced on its Facebook account on Tuesday.
The national flags of Russia, which had been flying among the flags of other participating teams in the championship along the streets of the Latvian capital of Riga and on the square near the hotel accommodating the players, were replaced with ROC flags. The Russian ice hockey team is currently banned from playing under the national flag and to the tune of the national anthem.
"Despite their week-long assurances about the legal use of the Russian national state flag along the streets in the city, the municipal authorities of Riga decided to replace it with the flag of the Russian Olympic Committee [ROC] without providing any particular explanations about it," the Russian Embassy’s statement on its official Facebook account reads.
"What could it have been - a failure to keep their word, a failure to stand for their own national principles, a simple inconsistency or a provocation in favor of siding with an immediately-changed political climate?"
Earlier in the day, Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists that a recent episode regarding the replacement of the Russian national flag with the ROC flag in Riga during the 2021 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship needs to be carefully studied to see whether it may have come from sports officials regarding last year’s CAS ruling or not.
"We must simply find out whether this square in Riga is an official venue of the world championship or it is not," Peskov told journalists. "If this is not an official venue of the world championship and it has no other symbol of the world tournament, then we are bound to disagree with such a move by the [Riga] municipal authorities."
Peskov added, however, that in case these places "are connected with the organization of the world championship, then the decision might have been made based on the recommendations from sports officials. It is possible."
According to last year’s ruling by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Russian athletes are prohibited until December 2022 from participating in world championships and Olympic Games under the national flag and to the tune of the national anthem.
Therefore, the Russian national ice hockey team is participating at the 2021 IIHF World Championship in Latvia wearing uniforms with the logo of the Russian Olympic Committee, a flame and the Olympic rings.
In mid-April, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) approved the use of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto for the awarding ceremonies of Russian athletes at this summer’s Tokyo-hosted Olympic Games and the same musical piece is now played after victories by the Russian ice hockey squad at the championship in Riga.
Riga is hosting the 2021 Ice Hockey Championship between May 21 and June 6. The championship’s matches are being played at two venues in the Latvian capital.
The main venue is the Arena Riga, where the Group B matches, two quarter-final games, the semi-final round and the medal round are being held. The second venue is the Olympic Sports Centre, which has been converted into a 6,000-capacity ice rink, where the Group A matches and two quarter-final games are being hosted. All 16 participating teams are being accommodated in one hotel and the tournament is organized in the so-called bubble mode.
Sanctions against Russian sports
On December 17, 2020, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland’s Lausanne partially upheld WADA’s (the World Anti-Doping Agency) previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports.
According to the CAS decision, Russian athletes were deprived of their right to participate in all World Championships, Olympic and Paralympic Games under the national flag of Russia for a two-year period.
The national anthem of Russia was also excluded from being played at international sports tournaments over the next two years, even at the upcoming Olympic Games in Japan this summer.
The ruling of the Swiss-based court also stripped Russia of the right to bid for the organization of all international sports tournaments for a period of two years. WADA’s sanctions will be in effect until December 2022.