MOSCOW, July 19. /TASS/. Russian diplomats in France will be prohibited from having any contact with Russian athletes and sports fans during the upcoming 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, Russian Ambassador to France Alexey Meshkov said on Friday.
"We are denied access both to [Russian] sports fans and athletes," Meshkov said speaking on air of Russia’s state-run Channel One television broadcaster. "What worries me most is that we will be denied access to our Paralympians, when the Paralympic Games kick off [in Paris on August 28]."
Asked whether Russian diplomats would have the authority to access and assist their country’s nationals in order to provide them with support during the 2024 Paris Olympics, the ambassador replied that "Right now, this is not a possibility."
Meshkov added that the staff of the Russian diplomatic mission will also be denied access to Olympic sports facilities, while only a select few from the Embassy’s staff will be allowed to roam the streets of Paris during the Summer Games in Paris.
As a result, the diplomat continued, members of the Russian Consulate in Paris will be unable to provide any kind of assistance to national athletes.
"Everyone who decides to travel [to the Olympic Games] should know that they are doing so at their own risk," Meshkov added.
The 2024 Summer Olympic Games will be hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11.
Ukrainian National Olympic Committee (NOC) President Vadim Gutsayt said speaking on Ukrainian TV earlier in the day that Ukrainian athletes participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics this summer would not exchanging greetings with athletes representing Russia and that the Ukrainian NOC had already agreed with international sports federations on this issue.
Earlier this year, the Ukrainian NOC chief announced that Ukrainian athletes at the 2024 Olympics would be prohibited from contact with Russian athletes. This means they will not be allowed to pose for pictures, give joint interviews and "definitely not shake hands."
Gutsayt also stated that Ukraine would be represented at the upcoming Olympics in France by 140 athletes in 23 sports, the smallest contingent the country has ever sent to the Olympic Games.
The IOC published on July 18 the list of Russian athletes allowed to compete at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.
The Russian team’s lineup includes tennis players Daniil Medvedev, Pavel Kotov, Roman Safiullin, Yekaterina Alexandrova, Mirra Andreeva, Diana Shnider, Yelena Vesnina; canoeists Zakhar Petrov, Alexey Korovashkov, Olesya Romasenko; swimmer Yevgeny Somov; cyclists Tamara Dronova, Alyona Ivanchenko, Gleb Syritsa; and Anzhela Bladtseva, who competes in trampoline event.
IOC’s regulations against Russia
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board convened for a meeting at the Olympic House in Lausanne, Switzerland, on March 19-20 and following the opening day it decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in the Parade of Athletes and also exclude them from the 2024 Olympics overall medal standings.
The IOC, however, ruled that Russian athletes, cleared to participate in the upcoming Olympics, would not have to sign anything denouncing their country’s special military operation in Ukraine.
On October 12, 2023, 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.
The Swiss-based CAS registered on November 6, 2023 an appeal from the ROC against the IOC’s decision on the Russian governing Olympic body’s suspension.
The suspension means that the ROC cannot act as a national Olympic committee or receive financing from the Olympic movement. The IOC however reserved the right to clear Russian athletes to take part in the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024 as neutrals. Later, IOC President Thomas Bach said that Russian athletes should have no affiliation with the ROC if they want to compete at the Olympic Games.