PERM, October 19. /TASS/. Restrictive sanctions, that are currently in place against the Russian athletes, could be lifted ahead of the national team’s possible participation in the 2028 Summer Olympic Games in the United States, President of the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) Stanislav Pozdnyakov said on Thursday.

"We have set the aim of competing in Los Angeles," Russia’s Olympic chief said at the 11th International Forum 'Russia - Country of Sports' hosted by the Russian city of Perm this week.

"I’m sure that the sanctions would be lifted by that time and the present-day approach would be altered," Pozdnyakov stated. "It [the approach] is already being altered."

After Japan’s Tokyo was home to the Olympic flame at the 2020 Summer Games, it is set to travel to Paris for the Summer Games in 2024, and then to Los Angeles in 2028. In 2021, at the 138th IOC (the International Olympic Committee) session in Tokyo, Australia’s Brisbane was selected to host the 2032 Summer Olympic Games.

The International Sports Forum ‘Russia - Country of Sports’ has been held in various cities across Russia since 2009. This year the forum is hosted by Perm, the country’s second-largest city in the Urals, between October 19 and 22.

On October 12, 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.

IOC sanctions against Russia

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 late March, 2023, the IOC recommended to permit individual athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in international sports tournaments, but only under certain conditions. Specifically, athletes from the two countries should not be "actively supporting" Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine and must compete under a neutral status. Russia and Belarus were also banned from participating in international team events.