MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/. Recent decisions made by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) make it imperative to seek out new avenues for the independent, depoliticized development of sports, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Friday.

"The recent actions by the International Olympic Committee are simply a mockery of common sense and the Olympic Charter. President [Vladimir] Putin has spoken repeatedly on this issue," Lavrov said at a meeting with students and faculty of Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO University).

"It all forces [us] to look for new avenues for the development of independent, depoliticized, truly competitive sports based in a sense of fairness," Russia’s top diplomat added.

IOC’s ban on Russia’s international participation

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.

Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.

At its session on March 28, 2023, the IOC Executive Board issued recommendations to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Athletes from the countries in question should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status.