MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) should cease to exist if it does not learn a lesson from the 2024 Olympics in France and keep politics out of the Olympic Games, Chairwoman of the Federation Council (the upper house of Russia’s Parliament) Valentina Matviyenko said on Thursday.

"In case the International Olympic Committee is unable to learn anything and does not return the Olympic Games to an unbiased, non-politicized policy, does not revive the ideas of the Olympic Movement, which have always been at its core, I believe that this organization should simply cease to exist… and there must be a reboot of the organization in place regarding new large-scale international sports events," she said.

Speaking about Russia’s neutral-status participants at the 2024 Olympics in France, Matviyenko said she never criticized anyone as "everyone has the right to make a choice, but keeping your dignity is what matters most."

"I have been paying special interest to the [world] Olympiad competitions in chemistry, mathematics, physics, where our guys under the flag of Russia and on behalf of Russia snatched amazing victories in real international competitions among schoolchildren and young people… I am proud that we have such a smart, talented, patriotic generation," she said.

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are hosted by the French capital of Paris between July 26 and August 11.

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.