MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin tasked the government on Wednesday to draft proposals to hold the 2024 BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) Games in Russia.

The proposals should be drafted and presented before July 1, according to the presidential decree posted on the Kremlin’s website earlier in the day. Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin was appointed to oversee the implementation of the presidential order.

On May 2, Russia’s Sports Minister Oleg Matytsin suggested at a government meeting with President Putin that the 2024 BRICS Games should be held on Russian soil. "In 2024, when Russia chairs BRICS, we suggest organizing the BRICS Games in our country. We view this event as very relevant, given the prospect of the BRICS platform’s expansion in terms of new member states," Matytsin said at that time.

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.

At its session on January 25, 2023, the IOC Executive Board put forward a proposal to permit 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.