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Russia, Belarus still barred from participating in 2023 European Games

The 2022 Asian Games are scheduled to be held in China’s Hangzhou from September 23 to October 8 this year

MOSCOW, January 27. /TASS/. Athletes from Russia and Belarus will not be allowed to take part in the 2023 European Games in Poland this summer despite a recent call from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to consider their participation in international sports tournaments, the press office of the European Olympic Committees (EOC) said in a statement on Friday.

At its Wednesday session, the IOC Executive Board put forward a proposal to allow individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Athletes from the countries in question should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status.

"…any possible solutions with regard to the potential participation of athletes from Russia and Belarus in EOC competition would not include the European Games Krakow Malopolska 2023," the statement from the EOC reads.

"As previously confirmed publicly by the EOC in Krakow in November 2022, any such participation is impossible under the current circumstances. Russian and Belarusian athletes will not take part in the European Games this year," the statement added.

The 2023 European Games are scheduled to be held in the Polish city of Krakow between June 21 and July 2, 2023. This will be a qualifying event for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.

The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) announced on January 26 that the organization had decided to allow athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in sports tournaments in Asia as well as in the Asian Games, subject to IOC conditions.

On February 28, 2022, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) issued recommendations to international sports federations to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from taking part in international tournaments, citing Moscow’s special military operation in Ukraine as the reason.

Following the IOC’s recommendations in late February, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.

The 2022 Asian Games are scheduled to be held in China’s Hangzhou from September 23 to October 8 this year. The event was initially scheduled to be held last year at the same venue, but was postponed to a later date due to the COVID-19 situation and its possible spread among people traveling to mainland China.

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