MOSCOW, February 5. /TASS, Andrey Kartashov/. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) will discuss at its Council’s meeting in Riga on March 15 the issue of musical compositions to substitute the Russian national anthem, IIHF President Rene Fasel told TASS on Friday.

A source in the Russian Ice Hockey Federation (RHF) announced to TASS earlier in the day that the Russian national ice hockey team will play at the 2021 Ice Hockey World Championship in Latvia to the tune of "Katyusha," Russia’s most popular song during World War II, instead of the Russian national anthem.

"We still have to discuss with the Russian Ice Hockey Federation what composition will be played," Fasel said. "Maybe it will be the IIHF anthem or maybe nothing will be played."

According to a ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), Russian athletes are prohibited until December 2022 from participating in the world championships and Olympic Games under the national flag and to the tune of the national anthem. On January 14, the Athletes Commission of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) proposed using Katyusha song instead of the national anthem at the Olympic Games.

"We are having the [IIHF] Council meeting on March 15 and will discuss it there," the IIHF chief continued. "However, Katyusha will not be Russia’s anthem. The country has very grand and famed national anthem, which cannot be replaced with any song."

National anthems at the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships are played after every match to honor the winners.

The 2021 Ice Hockey Championship will be hosted by the Latvian capital of Riga between May 21 and June 6. The championship will be played at two venues in Riga.

The main venue will be the Arena Riga and it will host Group B, two quarter-final games, the semi-final round and the medal round. The second venue will be the Olympic Sports Centre, which will be converted into a 6,000-capacity ice rink and will host Group A and two quarter-final games. All 16 participating teams will be housed in one hotel.

The Russian national team has been placed in Group A alongside the national teams from Sweden, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Slovakia, Denmark, Belarus and Great Britain. Group B lists the teams from Canada, Finland, the United States, Germany, Latvia, Norway, Italy and Kazakhstan.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland’s Lausanne upheld on December 17 WADA’s [the World Anti-Doping Agency] previous ruling on a number of sanctions against Russian sports.

According to the CAS decision as of December 17, 2020, Russian athletes were deprived of their right to participate in all world championships and Olympic and Paralympic Games under the national flag of Russia for a two-year period.

The national anthem of Russia was also ruled out to be played at international sport tournaments in the course of the next two years, including at the upcoming Olympic Games in Japan this year.

The ruling of the Swiss-based court also stripped Russia of the right to bid for the organization of all international sports tournaments for the period of two years. WADA’s sanctions will be in force until December 2022.