MOSCOW, October 13. /TASS/. The International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s decision to suspend the membership of the Russian Olympic Committee is politically motivated and only serves to harm the global sports landscape, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said.

"The IOC Executive Committee’s October 12 decision to suspend the membership of the Russian Olympic Committee is yet further evidence of the corrosive processes that are gaining momentum inside the IOC under pressure from Washington," she said in a statement, posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official website.

"Such politically motivated actions on the part of international sports bodies whittle away at global sports," the spokeswoman added.

The Russian diplomat went on to say that double standards and deliberate segregation on the basis of ethnicity constitute "a blatant violation of Russian athletes’ rights, and eventually, a violation of basic human rights."

"The global community vested the IOC with the authority to develop sports and to play a consolidating role in efforts to strengthen the Olympic movement, but not to destroy it through political intrigues," Zakharova added.

"We, on our part, will continue to use all the necessary international legal instruments to defend the rights of our athletes," she said.

According to the spokeswoman, Russia will also continue to protect the global sport’s mission of being a "unique medium for developing and strengthening human connections, for creating mutually respectful communications, for bridging gaps between peoples and for bringing them together."

Earlier in the day, the IOC suspended the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) until further notice after the Russian organization included the Olympic councils of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics (DPR and LPR), the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions as its members.