MOSCOW, March 24. /TASS/. Russian Basketball Federation (RBF) is set to play friendly matches against national squads from China, federation’s president Andrey Kirilenko told TASS on Tuesday.

"Even before Xi [Jinping's visit to Moscow] we were in talks regarding the summer schedule. We are still upholding the talks," Kirilenko said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping paid an official visit to the Russian capital of Moscow on March 20-22.

"China’s men basketball squad performs at our level, while Chinese women basketball team is much stronger if compared to Russia," the RBF head stated. "They [China’s women basketball squad] are the runners-up of the World Basketball Championship."

"This is why we consider it to be significant playing friendly basketball matches against them [China]," Kirilenko added.

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 2022, the majority of global sports federations decided to bar athletes from Russia and Belarus from all international sports tournaments.

In mid-May 2022, the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) officially confirmed its decision to suspend the Russian national women and men’s teams from the FIBA World Cup competitions in 2022 and 2023 respectively.