MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. Moscow urges the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to move away from its destructive anti-Russian course and start following the fundamental principles of the Olympic Movement, Russian Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesman Andrey Nastasyin said at a briefing on Wednesday.

"We would like to reiterate again that sports is a universal value and the right to participate in sports competitions is an inalienable human right," he said. "No one, not even [IOC President] Thomas Bach has a monopoly over this human activity."

"We call on the IOC leadership to abandon its destructive anti-Russian course and strictly follow the fundamental principles of the international Olympic Movement," the diplomat added.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stated earlier that the IOC decision to bar Russia and Belarus from the 2024 Olympics in France was blatant "racial discrimination and double standards" from the Olympic committee which violates the law on admitting athletes to international competitions. She added that IOC policy here is essentially "segregation based on nationality."

IOC’s regulations against Russia

The International Olympic Committee 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.